Magical Dirt

Radio Moscow, largely the work of Parker Griggs, records as a true power trio this time around. Drummer Paul Marrone joins up with Parker and bassist Anthony Meier for more late-‘60s and early-‘70s debauchery. Griggs clearly knows the catalogs of Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and other acts of the era, and his songwriting and production style are clearly an homage to the times when serious stereo mixes were all the rage (just listen to the wild panning during “So Alone” and “These Days”). “Sweet Lil Thing” plays with the slow blues, while the bass and lead guitar syncopations throughout the album are a wondrous thing to behold. The riffs guiding “Death of a Queen,” “Bridges,” “Gypsy Fast Woman," and most tracks on the album are birthed in the boogie and the blues, which eventually fell out of favor with rock fans as audiences splintered and followed either the heavy metal of the ‘70s or progressive rock. In 2014, it’s not a matter of progress but of nailing down the genre correctly. In that case, Radio Moscow are at the top of the class.