STRAIGHT TO THE BRAIN

Having enjoyed Heartscore's 2016 album I took advantage of the holiday season and made a foray into back catalogue, opting for the oldest item on the Bandcamp discography : "Straight to the Brain" from 2004.

The cartoonish cover art, a literal depiction of the title, reminds my days as a C64 owner dabbling with line-drawing software. A deliberately nostalgic gesture towards an 80s childhood perhaps?

The liner notes credit Dirk Radloff with guitars, bass, violin as well as lead and backing vocals. Additional personnel include Tim Warweg on drums, and Stefan Platte, contributing piano and trumpet. Mixing and mastering are attributed to Ole and Jorg Kiessling, making for a significantly different division of labour compared to Heartscore's recent album.

The opener, "God lay dead", wastes no time in getting down to business, with distorted guitars and a kind of epic metal-Western feel. Riffs with chugging punctuation, rhythmic shifts and mobile accents and a multitracked, distressed and demented sounding angelic choir befitting the subject matter. I wondered if this was a Nietzsche reference, but the CD booklet has a lyrical credit for Stephen Crane, with a short internet search dating the American author's poem to 1905 - perfectly in keeping with many of Mr Radloff's preferred authors. The song, in a little over 3 minutes, blends all manner of ideas and moods with a refrain that takes me back to 70s glam-rock, albeit influenced by heavier 80s metal. Radloff's vocals are pitched in "rock tenor" territory, reminding me of Peter Hammill or Anekdoten's Nicklas Barker. Committed and passionate, identifying the drama of the poetry and riding the musical waves. Energetic invention to open the set of a dozen songs in style.

Next is "Long John Brown and little Mary Bell", beginning with a Page-esque riff and accumulating 80s heavy metal trappings. Very dynamic drums and an extended solo guitar feature are arrangement highlights. The third track, "Anyone", begins with a classic pedal-note riff, something akin to Randy Rhoads' rhythm style in the late 70s/early 80s. Great drumming and, again, lots of guitar-focus.

The fourth track, "Love is like whiskey", draws on Langston Hughes' jazz-age poetry, and adopts something of a glam-rock style, at least initially. This being Heartscore, nothing is ever single-genre based, and the track develops in a 40s/50s street corner doo-wop direction. I wonder if this is a filtered 70s Queen influence?

So far the earlier Heartscore employs more conventional heavy rock forces and gives extra spotlight time to the lead guitar.

A stand-out track for me is "The schoolboy", featuring wonderful trumpet, in a kind of nod to the baroque tendencies of 60s psychedelia, and a childlike opening theme with a vocal timbre reminiscent of Steve Harley. The song moves through another choral arrangement before a glorious transition around the five minute mark, which brings to mind "And You And I", in terms of its melodic shaping, guitar style and upward spiralling epic quality.

Zeppelinisms abound over the second half of the album with Dirk pushing his vocals to include whoops and squeals. More riffs, more energy and always lots of rhythmic variety, see-sawing between 70s and 80s influences.

The other personal highlight comes in the form of the penultimate track, "Good-Bye" , drawing on the poetry of Ralph Waldo Emerson and seeing Radloff into Peter Hammill territory in a few places, especially during the existentially fraught spoken word section, which would have been at home in the soundworld of "Lemmings" or "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers".

The closing track deserves a special mention with a glorious opening of acoustic guitar and chattering woodwind, which I can only describe as pastoral Zeppelin in collaboration with Erich Korngold. This song, more than any of the others, hints at the future direction of Heartscore with classical/soundtrack influences melded to classic and art- rock, and a more prominent role for Radloff's distinctively lyrical violin abilities.

The mix quality and production are excellent with lively drums and well-recorded guitars, exhibiting an ideal balance of crunch and bite. Hearing Dirk take the lead vocals is very interesting in comparison to the native-English speaking Chris, who is heavily featured on 2016's eponymous album. Fashioning lyrics from non-rock-idiom poetry and setting them to music influenced by classic rock and metal makes for striking and unexpected phrasing. There's a refreshing lack of the usual blues-derived exhortations, making for cliche-free lyrics and adding to the very real sense of cross-cultural currents.

How does this compare to "Heartscore"?

Similar yet different. Something of a cop-out perhaps, but the restless, searching invention and dazzling arrangements are common to both albums, albeit with the older title using a smaller instrumental palette, thanks to the classic rock quartet/quintet.

I'd say that the more direct and riff-o-centric "Straight to the Brain" will appeal to an audience more familiar with classic rock, as opposed to 2016's "Heartscore" which displays more classical/jazz/modern-musical theatre influences. Again, if you're looking for something different, something more defiantly progressive, in its truest sense, then you won't go wrong with either album.