Saturday 9 August 2014

Ginger Wildheart - G.A.S.S. Month 4 EP (2014)

Genre - Hard Rock / Pop / Punk
Label - Self Released

Track listing:
01 - Honour
02 - Down The Dip
03 - If You Find Yourself In London Town
Bonus Demo's
04 - Melanchoholic (Unreleased Demo)
05 - Begin from Within (Original Demo)

My God we are four months into Gingers twelve month G.A.S.S. project and the quality is showing no signs of dipping yet! That's a full albums worth (Twelve) of brand spanking new songs plus a further eight  previously unreleased / demo tracks, awesome, simply awesome.
So what does this forth instalment bring to the mix.
Well this months offering opens up with "Honour", a great pop-rock track with slight punk leanings that features the talents of, Courtney Love on co-lead vocals, Micko Larkin on lead guitar, rhythm guitar and vocals and  Neil McMinn on drums. the track was mixed by Kevin Vanbergen and really bodes well for any future collaborations between the delightful Miss Love and Ginger (especially as he has recently been providing his services by playing guitar in her touring band). "Honour" is a really good song with Courtney Love's vocal prominent in the mix with Gingers rather lower in the mix. A real belter of a song that I like more and more with each listen.
Next up we have "Down The Dip", which proves to be another great rocking track, this time featuring the talents of Yolanda Quartey, Ben Janet, Kelii Compulsive on vocals and  Tim G  on keys.  Again this song was mixed by Kevin Vanbergen. I can really imagine this song being a lot of fun live!
The last of the three new songs on offer this month is "If You Find Yourself In London Town", which features the talents of Micko Larkin on guitars and  backing vocals and Neil McMinn on drums, this time mixed by Ian Gore.  This song is a great acoustic driven song which I guess sees t Ginger return to the subject matter he first visited with Wildheart classics "Down On London" and "Greetings from Shitsville". I really love this song, even more so as it once again showcases another side of Gingers song writing, just how many strings does he have to his bow heh?

Next up we have this months two bonus demos / unreleased tracks,



The two tracks on off this month are "Melanchoholic" a song that was previously unreleased and the original demo of "Begin From Within" from the now famous 555% album sessions.
First, as I have previously done with the previous G.A.S.S. releases I'll let Ginger explain the songs:

"MELANCHOHOLIC – Strange one this. Everyone I’ve played it to hates it. Can I count you in the throng?
From a manic sober spell, where I wrote a song a day as therapy, many songs made the 555% album. I wanted to do this with an orchestra, and a proper vocal track, but Willie couldn’t see any merit in the song. I have since doubted that I’ll ever return to this song, and so I’d like to present it here, to you, in all its raw and candid sincerity. If one person out there likes it then that’ll make two of us.
BEGIN FROM WITHIN – From the same fevered writing spree as Melanchoholic, this bedroom recording differs wildly in arrangement to the version that appeared on 555%. Inspired by a roaming stroll around New York one very sober day, the ideas for the song almost pestered themselves into being. Nothing inspires like New York City, usually to write melancholic, brown suited, hangdog, world weary stuff. Positive songs with a droopy cigarette hanging from an unshaven face. Like this one."

Now I have to say that I bloody well love "Melanchoholic", I honestly believe that this song could have been a real corker had Ginger recorded it properly and given it the finish it deserves. In many ways the song is a simple as it gets, with a heartfelt vocal over guitar and piano, with some synth strings added for flavour. If Ginger himself never returns to this song it would be a crime, the demo presented here is beautiful enough as it is, but should it ever be recorded properly in the manner that Ginger describes above then this song would be simply awesome!
The demo of "Begin From Within" allows us to witness a great songs work in progress, showing how its lyrics and arrangements altered before it became the track that we are all familiar with from 555%. Its really nice that it has been included here.

So there we have it, month four, another three stunning brand new tracks and two real gems of demos.

Rating - 10/10

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