Ska Rapples - Neophyte Blues

Hear The Track Here

Musicians, musicians, musicians....wtf is it with you guys? Why do you ALWAYS denigrate your own work as you pass it over for review? Really makes me chuckle when, in reality, there are very few musicians I have ever reviewed who shouldn't be blowing their own trumpet. After all, just being able to carry a tune is yer basic requirement these days, but most of you go way, way beyond that. And yet, and yet, every time there is a new track it is offered timorously, no bigging yourself up because - in your heart - you know you have a ******* good tune and that's enough. Obviously Road Apples, guiding sphere of Ska Rapples (see what he did there?) (Ed: errrr, no) need have no qualms about his material, as previous reviews have shown. Mmm, lets see, a highly recommended and a must have for Ska Rapples, highly recommended for A Cry Of Hounds (a side project), highly recommended for Sad Hill Cemetery (yet another side yadda) two highly recommendeds and a must have for Road Apples (the original). Beginning to get the picture here? This is a seasoned, competent musician who then writes 'I'm still working within the 'confines' of a three piece combo' as if this were a bad thing. Fact is, I haven't heard anything from this artist that I haven't actively liked, and there aren't many I can say that about.

More to the point, like a lot of seasoned musicians, he has developed his own sound and style and nowhere has this been more effective IMHO than in the work of Ska Rapples. Both of the tracks I have previously reviewed were chalk and cheese, couldn't be any further apart musically and yet both pieces had gravity and power in their own way. Inspired in some way by Soundclick eminence Peter Garland and activities in Soundclick's Garbage Can forum (you can guess what goes on there). OK, here's a clue, they feast on the lost souls of noobs, and neophyte is the correct term for beginner. Many is the time I have sung (no, wailed) about the fate of newbies wandering into the multilayered dangers of a Garbage Can conversation but - like all newbies everywhere - they think they know it all.

Neophyte Blues is exactly what it says on the tin, yer actual blues. OK, now that sentence has seen off the dissenters, there's blues and blues, know what I mean? As Michael Hughes (no guitar slouch himself) comments on this song 'For a guy who doesn't do blues, you've just done it--and brilliantly'. Now that's a sentiment I can more than agree with because, as it happens, I like blues when its treated properly and this is a great example of what I mean. Pace, timing and instrumental effectiveness is what counts in this genre, at least to pull it off with any authenticity, and there are very, very few who can actually pull this off. Again though, it proves my essential point in this review, talent and experience count so don't discount it yourself. Artists of this calibre know when they hit the spot, regardless of what they say in real life and thank God for that too. So, RA, I think you can take it as read that I liked this :)

Highly Recommended slice o' de blooz. (Ed: psst its not about newbies, just him spouting off)