Octane
Artist: 
Label: Grrr Records 
Length: 13 tracks / 46 minutes 

If Kaiser was not listening to Robin Trower when he put this CD together, then I’ll stick a pencil in each ear and dance around naked. Its first five minutes echo his classic “Too Rolling Stoned” from the guitar tone to the chilled, atmospheric bits, where Kaiser pedals a host of sounds from his guitar, and even vocal phrasing.

There is plenty of Kaiser’s own typical style here though, his voice often dueting with his own guitar lines, and his usual wide range of blues from the speedy twelve-bar “Streetcorner Blues” to the more emotional slow blues of “Depends on Where You Stand” and “Stand by the Window,” an evocative missing-you song, which has much of the feel of his mid-years Resurrection Band. In between come songs with a more subtle blues influence, rather like the work of Robert Cray.

Sometimes these middle-ground songs like “Bad Times” sound a bit obligatory, whereas others – like “What Can Be Shaken” – have from the very first seconds that magical emotional connection that gets you screwing your face up as you feel the music (I can’t be the only one who does that?). One of these better ones is Kaiser’s guitar-based take on Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” omitting all of the synth and clavinet parts that the original is known for. The good news is that this version sounds just as if the song was written for guitar. The other more well-known cover is of “Young Man’s Blues,” Mose Allison’s song made famous by The Who. The Glen Kaiser Band have completely re-written the lyrics and re-arranged the music, making it a Christian lament for youth: 

How can a young man stay pure in the world these days? 
Why would a young man stay pure in the world anyway? 

However, there is a remnant of the Who in the way that GKB push the bass right up front on this one.
                                                                                                                                                          
Kaiser’s words are refreshingly real, facing up to the street realities of debt, prostitution, drugs and injustice that industry Christian music often conveniently ignores. He sings them with conviction, a fair bit of growling and, in “Rollercoaster,” a Hendrixy tone to his voice. Unusually with blues tracks, the lyrics are written with plenty of imagery and style, and can definitely be appreciated straight from the liner notes, even without hearing the music.

As always, Kaiser gives you the whole works – slide, wah-wah, boogie, slow blues, twelve bar and some rifferama. This disc shows Kaiser at his vocally most engaged and giving his guitar a great workout. At times the songs could do with more of a spark, probably because we get used to hearing so much of his music played live, where it takes off; but this is a fine inventive effort with several highlights.
 

Derek Walker