Y otra mas!!
Maravilloso!!
TEMAS:
1. When The Feeling Is Gone
2. Niteside
3. Just Keep Turning Me On
4. Keep Away From That Girl
5. Hold On Tight
6. What A Man Should Know
7. Take It To The Top
8. Two Can Play
Musicos:
Bruce Nazarian Vocals, Guitars
Randall K. Jacobs Guitars, Vocals
James A. Noel Keyboards
Nolan Medenhall Bass, Vocals
Jerry Q. Jones Drums, Vocals
fantastico rock A.O.R. Norte Americano d los 80'!!
Mas info:
http://www.heavyharmonies.com/cgi-bin/glamcd.cgi?BandNum=2543&CDName=Night+Ridery mas info en Ingles:
NIGHTRIDER-THE AUTOMATIX
(USA/MCA/1983)
This band should have been reviewed much earlier, because the only album ‘Night rider’ of THE AUTOMATIX is a pure classic in the AOR genre. Maybe most of you will already have this album, but a review of such a classic is always nice to read and especially with the songs on this album I could easily think of comparisons to other similar sounding bands/artists. Vocalist/guitarist Bruce Nazarian and drummer Jerry Q. Jones of the band produced ‘Night rider’.
Opener “When the feeling is gone” is my favourite cut on the album, what a start! This song is an incredible laid-back slowtempo AOR song with a superb AOR chorus that features some amazing and relaxing harmonyvocals. It is very much similar in style to FRANKE&THE KNOCKOUTS. Keyboardist James A. Noel plays an important role in the music of THE AUTOMATIX, this already can be heard on the opener and especially on the songs on side-B.
The next track “Night side” is a bit rougher and more uptempo AOR with some Pomprock-influences thrown in for good measure. The song reminds me of LE ROUX crossed with the heavier stuff of DAKOTA. When mentioning this, you will understand that “Night side” is also a fantastic song. The following track “Just keep turnin me on” is a bit softer in style, but is still great AOR like a mixture of BE TAYLOR GROUP and EVEREST. Then we come to the song “Expose” which is slightly different than the standard AOR and in this song comparisons can be made to CINEMA FACE.
The closing track of side-A is the heaviest track of the whole album. The song is titled “Keep away from that girl” and has a typical 70’s rock’n’roll feeling like ANGEL without their pomprock influences. The song is pretty good and besides an ANGEL comparison, I could also give references to RIGGS/USA (Heavy Power Pop Rock they would call it when I give comparisons to bands like these).
Moving on to side-B, which opens with the titletrack “Nightrider”. An excellent uptempo AOR song that is similar in style to JOURNEY. The following 3 tracks are clearly softer than the rest of the album. The keyboards (and synthesizers) are moving up front that can clearly be heard in the song “Hold on tight”. This song has very catchy keys during the chorus and quite often reminds me of the JAY GRUSKA album ‘Which one of us is me’ (a very underrated AOR album).
But when I mention such a comparison, I could also mention TOTO, because musically THE AUTOMATIX is close to that famous band on the song “Hold on tight”. The same goes for the following track “What a man should know”, a great song, and when hearing this song I must think of the only classic AOR/Westcoast release of DAVID ROBERTS (‘All dressed up’) that is quite similar in style.
The next track “Take it to the top” take things the other way and moves more into LOVERBOY, STREETHEART territory, straightforward heavy poprock, nothing special, still nice to hear. The final track of the LP is the fantastic uptempo AOR song “Two can play” that is a bit sounding like BERNIE LABARGE. If you don’t know THE AUTOMATIX, I can only say that you miss a piece of the AOR history and that’s a shame.
This album is a classic in the AOR genre and could’ve been high in the US charts at the time it was released. The were similar in style to Journey, Franke&The Knockouts… and bands like these scored massive hits, so why didn’t The Automatix make it to the top. They even had their only release on one of the most popular recordlabels (MCA Records). Nobody will know the answer and we can now only hope that some record label will put this LP re-issued on CD.
(Points: 9.0 out of 10)
Muxisimas Gracias una vez mas por recuperar y rescatar del pasado, Verdaderas Joyazas como esta!!
Muxos Saludos!!
AOR peliculero con mucho tema de "repeticción incesante del estribillo" tan habitual de la época (sabeís que odio eso ajaj) pero con un toque de originalidad en su sonidiguo poco habitual en estas bandas AOR-primigenias, aunque algunas guitarras no me convencen del todon...venda darme el graduado por leer la Cuore...
