GAMMA 1

Wounded Bird社盤を所有していましたが、今回、Rock Candy社盤を購入しました。音質、音量、音圧、素晴らしいです。(Wounded Bird盤も、良好な音質でしたが…。)モントローズの後期の音に、さらに、カラフルなサウンドを盛り付けしたような感じです。スペース・サウンド的な楽曲や泣きのギター満載の楽曲など、バラエティに富んだ作品です。ラスト・ナンバーの”ファイト・トウ・ザ・フィニッシュ“のサビのカウベル・ドラミングですが、モロに、ディープ・パープルの”ユー・フール・ノウ・ワン“のイントロのカウベル・ドラミングです。ぜひ、聴き比べてみて下さい。

Ronnie Montrose’s return to Rock after some instrumental guitar albums. Some rocking tunes, a bit more keyboards, but are all put together well. Not as good as Gamma 2, but a solid album.

La caja llego quebrado

Having broken up Montrose (the band) and released an instrumental solo album, guitar great Ronnie Montrose then formed Gamma and this album was the result.  The largely unknown Scottish singer Davey Pattison was a lucky find, possessing a bluesy voice with hints of Paul Rodgers and Lou Gramm but very much his own man.  With six original songs and two covers (including The Hollies' No.1 single "I'm Alive") the opening track "Thunder & Lightning" is as terrifying as the title suggests (the song's theme having echoes of Free's "Mr Big") and the vocalised synth on the title words avoids sounding anything like ELO's "Mr Blue Sky".  Ronnie's lead guitar is a lesson in restraint - when the temptation for many guitarists would probably be to let fly.  The choice of cover tune which follows feels like an attempt to secure a hit single - very keyboard-driven (and with more vocalised synth), it has a superb solo from Ronnie though.  "Razor King" draws on the dark underbelly of life in Pattison's home town of Glasgow and the threat of violence picks up where the title track left off - this isn't a tale of the Turkish barbers'.  For me, this number is like a mini musical (if that's a thing) with Pattison playing the roles of both narrator and lead actor.  Ronnie's guitar parts are absolutely incredible.  "No Tears" then closed the LP side 1 - starting in much calmer fashion with its keyboard intro, Ronnie's lead guitar is all over this one and his call-and-response with Davey's vocals is as conversational as it gets.  A great track, sadly marred by the all-too-sudden fade to Ronnie's outro solo when he was in full-flow.  How any producer could do that, I'll never know.  I'd love to hear what the master guitarist did next!  Although often you can't beat a straight re-issue of a classic album, that's when expanded Deluxe Editions can really be worthwhile.An instrumental, "Solar Heat", faded in the old side 2 - its futuristic-sounding keyboards leading the way to Ronnie's guitar before the two break out into a great Colosseum II style (Gary Moore / Don Airey) mid-section, ending with a scorching Montrose solo then segueing into "Ready For Action", with it's lightning fast lead runs and riff and another great guitar solo (this one became the live show opener).  Mickey Newbury's "Wish I Was" is a tough song to cover well and Pattison and Montrose really connect with it - Ronnie was, sadly, a deeply troubled soul and this number isn't just bluesy - this is real blues.  Although his outro solo has possibly the longest fade in history, it still ends too soon for my money.   And finally, "Fight To The Finish" is the longest number here - like "Razor King" it's full of drama.  'Space-rock' and 'thinking-man's metal' is sometimes how Gamma 1 is described - illustrated by the cerebral album cover - it's certainly hard rock of the highest quality, no question: inspired and ahead of its time in many ways.The great 12 page booklet includes an informative essay, interview with Davey Pattison and an album review from the time by Steve Gett in Melody Maker.  Ken Scott was a big name producer (including for Bowie, Supertramp and Jeff Beck) and I don't recall Pattison's vocals being as low in the mix as on the CD - another reviewer has mentioned this as being a good thing for them but, for me, hearing the lead vocal placed slightly below the music (which is how it sounds to me) makes Davey's singing hard to appreciate fully.  As the CD has been remastered - not remixed, I don't know what might explain that perception. Despite this I still can't give this album less than 5*, as the 2013 Jon Astley remaster sounds so good - it somehow has more 'life' to it than the unremastered 2002 Wounded Bird Records / Rhino version which sounds fine to me (although it also has the vocals slightly down in the mix).

Le 1° d'une série de 3 mais peut-être le meilleur...

gamma 1 insieme a gamma 2 rappresentano il meglio che il grande ex chitarrista dei montrose ha scritto negli anni 80. hard rock deluxe vivamente consigliato

Rock scribe Martin Popoff gve this album a 10 out of 10 score in his Collectors Guide to Heavy Metal: the 70's and it's easy enough to see why when you let this album unfold about you. Of course the real reason to care (until you hear the music) is guitarist Ronnie Montrose who rose to prominence with one of the most awesome debut records in hard music history with 1973's Montrose. Admittedly by all accounts that vehicle ended up sputtering to a halt in the mud of misdirection and ego but come 1979 all could be forgiven as the man teamed up with a band of Jim Alcivar (synth), Davey Pattison (vox) Alan Fitzgerald (B) and drums by Skip Gillette and produced a slice of rifferama that has flourishes of funk, blues, all the good 70's hard rock cliches, virtually none of the bad ones and plenty of heart and soul.Production of the eight tunes on offer sounds good. Not dated at all, just warm and human. It reminds most obviously of the knob job on the Montrose album itself and also the first two Robert Plant solo platters, the latter two namechecked because of the clean nature of recording here. Everything just very much in it's own place and with plenty of room to breathe and also for the rhythm section and synths to do their interplay without too much going on. I guess it's the old adage of less is more at play.Special props to vocalist Davey Pattison who is a suitably gifted ringmaster with the capacity to synchromesh with the catalogue of guitar skills Ronnie sallies forth with. Songwriting wise the credits are shared around and this further enhances the band feel to this release.While some of the synth flourishes haven't dated too well they are almost welcome reminders of the decade this album came out in and taken as a whole package this is an album that probably quintessentially captures a certain style of rockin' out music that seemingly just doesn't cut through to the collective conscious anymore. A great highway album, this `un will live in your car stereo for weeks and is also light and connective enough to be played in any company.I'm not gonna argue with Popoffs' perfect score in this instance!

Finally, for fans of Ronnie Montrose and Gamma, GAMMA 1 is available on CD!Up till now, the only offering has been 'The Best of Gamma', a good- but not great- compilation of selected songs off Gammas 1, 2, and 3. All of GAMMA 1 except for two songs were included. Those two songs are 'Solar Heat/Ready for Action', and 'No Tears'. Ironically, those are two of my favorite Gamma songs anywhere.Anybody familiar with Ronnie's earlier 'solo' work, especially with Sammy Hagar as the frontman really ought to check out this overlooked band. Ronnie's trademark, lean, mean, distinctive guitar tone is there as usual, but GAMMA added the additional layers of synthesizers, tastefully served up by Jim Alcivar. Perhaps one of the greatest contributions to rock music made by this band, however, was...the discovery of vocalist Davey Pattison. This guy has a terrific, gravelly set of pipes, and was an absolutely undiscovered gem of a find for Ronnie Montrose and Rock 'n' Roll in general. Although Davey has since gone on to concentrate more on blues and do solo work and gigs in the SF area... his voice was also ideal for the excellent hard rock served up here.The original track order is:1. Thunder and Lightning: great rock song, with Davey's flashing, barely controlled angry vocals and tons of Ronnie's distinctive guitar tone. Above it all floats a constant, light synth tone. Lots and lots of flavor!2. I'm Alive: the lone top-40 hit, even this surging, upbeat song has tons of Ronnie tone. It's progressive hard rock, but in love.3. Razor King: dark and brooding, this song is a bit longer, more a moody 'tale' of sorts, interspersed rocking riffs with passages of quiet synths.. with Davey's vocal expressiveness highlighted magnificently. Many, many songs, groups, and albums of listening later, and I still haven't come across another song quite like this one. It's that unique.4. No Tears: left off 'the Best of', but it's still one of the great ones. I believe it's actually a cover that was written by somebody else. The one 'sad' song on the album, it's still upbeat and probably the song to most prominently feature the synth.5/6. Solar Heat/Ready for Action: while Solar Heat is truly the calm before the storm, consisting mainly of synth noises and quiet sounds, Ready for Action is the real rocker on this set. Unconscionable that it was left of 'the Best of', this song ROCKS! It's relentless and fast, and it's brutal pace and truly aggressive vibe is only stirred to a fever pitch by Davey's mean, stunning vocals. God, I love this song. And anyone who loves Montrose or Gamma would love it too!7. Wish I Was: this is the one bluesy, melancholy number that forebode Davey's move into the blues. Then again, with the vocal chops he displays on this one, I wouldn't be surprised if this cut was his idea! This song is the one that most highlights the excellent contribution of Davey Pattison. Ronnie gets in some really expressive licks here, too.8. Fight to the Finish: This is another aggressive rocker and the longest song on the album, and it combines many of different above elements in the same song. Not a straight-ahead rocker like 'Thunder and Lightning' or 'Ready for Action', it's something perhaps of a concept piece in the vein of 'Razor King', with distinct movements and wider dynamic swings from quiet passages to storming, all-out riffing assault.Actually, there are really only seven songs here, and GAMMA 1 doesn't clock out to a total of much more than 35 minutes or so. Back in the early 80's and the vinyl standard, this was more normal than it is nowadays. But when it's all this good, who cares? GAMMA works well as a whole album, and the songs were extremely well chosen. It is far from a monotonous record, while still offering great tracks and no filler.I've already bought mine. Gamma and Montrose fans, this is a must for any collector of good 80's hard rock!