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Radio Moscow, New Beginnings: Burn the Ground, Torch the Cosmos

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If you don’t already know Radio Moscow are one of the best and most vital bands currently boogieing their way around the planet, you’ve probably never seen them live. It’s cool — sometimes it’s hard to get out and there will hopefully be many more opportunities for you to do so, but the truth of the matter is that when it comes to on-stage energy, presence and delivery of classic heavy rock, frenetically cast into a one-of-a-kind bluesy shuffle, there’s no one who does it better than the San Diego-based three-piece of founding guitarist/vocalist Parker Griggs, bassist Anthony Meier (also Sacri Monti) and drummer Paul Marrone (also PsicomagiaBirth). They’ve had a tumultuous history to bring them to where they are, casting a wide influence second perhaps only to Earthless over the West Coast heavy boom of recent years, but as Griggs debuted the lineup with Meier and Marrone on 2014’s Magical Dirt (review here), it was clearly the start of a new era for Radio Moscow as a whole.

Their fifth album overall and first following a label change from Alive Records to Century Media — significant as the former had issued everything they’d done up to this point, from their 2007 self-titled debut through 2016’s Live! in California 2LP — New Beginnings continues their forward push into max-impact rock and blues with 10 new tracks and just under 40 minutes of genuine, bona fide scorch the likes of which, again, most other bands simply would not be able to conjure. Griggs‘ history of helming Radio Moscow recordings goes back to the early demos that were released in 2012 as 3 & 3 Quarters, and he once more steps into the producer role on New Beginnings, seemingly with a mission to bring an added sense of color to cuts like the instrumental “Woodrose Morning” or the later harmonica-and-tom-thudding swirl-and-stomper “Last to Know,” which highlights the blend of Echoplex-laden heavy psych and earthy blues on display throughout, operating, as ever, in top form.

A fast hi-hat count-in from Marrone sets the pace for the charge of opening semi-title-track “New Beginning,” which at just over four minutes is actually one of the longer cuts on the album that mostly shares its name. The sense of setting a vibe is quick as Meier‘s always-classy basslines and Griggs‘ furious guitar work unleash their barrage atop Marrone‘s jazzy snare rolls and impossible-sounding tom hits, some tambourine backing the first verse lines as guttural lines are meted out with the band’s trademark blue-eyed soul. It’s constant motion, and that’s no less a hallmark of Radio Moscow‘s approach than the hook that follows, the madcap pacing, reverb-soaked vocals or the head-spinning result of all these elements combined. Radio Moscow being Radio Moscow, in other words. “New Beginning” jams into the swirling start-stop boogie of “Deceiver,” which once again finds Griggs‘ voice drenched in effects atop his Hendrix-style guitar, but pulls back on the tempo to give more of a cyclical feel to its verse lines, punctuated by Marrone‘s drumming.

In its last minute, “Deceiver” builds from its comfortable fluidity into an all-out surge of groove, cutting to silence ahead of the relatively serene, atmospheric start of “Woodrose Morning,” the lysergic feel of which is hinted at in the title, and the effect of which is hypnotic enough that almost before one realizes it, the wash has given way to the subsequent “Driftin’,” which with its flourish of harmonica and bluesy shove reorients the listener back on solid ground despite a guitar solo that seems to maintain some of the echo from “Woodrose Morning” between its verses, a quick turn efficiently done in under three minutes to give way to the key-inclusive presumed side A finale, “No One Knows Where They’ve Been,” which rounds out the formidable momentum built up across New Beginnings thus far with a fervent shuffle, peppered-in string-tearing leads and a swaggering hook that anchors the first half while the second pushes outward into a jam, sounding like it’s about to fly off the rails which of course it never actually does. As if to remind that they’re songwriters after all, they move back into the chorus and cap “No One Knows Where They’ve Been” with fading Echoplex noise.

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If this first half of New Beginnings is about building up that momentum, that forward push, with the trippy excursion of “Woodrose Morning” tucked neatly in the middle as the centerpiece of the initial five cuts, then side B would seem to be where Radio Moscow take that momentum and move it into even more expansive terrain. “Last to Know” leads off the back end of the tracklisting with toms at the outset, as swirl of guitar effects and harmonica, and briskly moves into its verse progression, with Griggs holding out the ends of his lines with the reverb that has by now become familiar. Like “Pacing” still to come, “Last to Know” offers one of New Beginnings‘ primo hooks, but in the molten guitar effects, added percussion and holding-it-all-together bass of the jam in its second half, it seems to border up to Afrobeat before its fadeout and so signals the wider berth of some of what follows nonetheless.

One might think of the instrumental “New Skin” as a relatively straightforward answer to “Woodrose Morning,” but the song ultimately proves Radio Moscow don’t necessarily need to go full-wash to draw the listener into a trance — the rhythm section leads the way and one can only delight in following the route toward “Pacing,” which follows the verse/chorus pattern of “Last to Know,” but pulls back from the jammy sensibility of the side B launcher — at least a bit — its bridge shorter and moving back to the hook after giving Griggs proper space to unleash yet another blinding solo. This also sets up the penultimate “Pick up the Pieces,” which serves as one of the most distinct departures New Beginnings makes as it digs into more laid back, airy blues. Gradually, tension builds in bass and drums behind Griggs‘ guitar and vocals, and before its 3:21 are up, the song explodes in about its last 40 seconds, but by then the mood is set, and a few final quiet notes underscore the point before giving ground to closer “Dreams,” also the longest inclusion at 5:57.

Have I mentioned “scorch” yet? Yes? Well, “Dreams” has plenty, just in case Radio Moscow haven’t burnt their own music to enough of a crisp yet. The tempo starts out smooth enough, but before long, the power trio put emphasis on the power and charge through verses into a tense build from which the guitar takes flight propelled by the bass and drums moving past the halfway point, disintegrating into Echoplex effects and finding itself in a wash of swelling volume — might be e-bow? — but feeling off-the-cuff and organically jammed out all the same. This psychedelic triumph spins in circles as the band hits five minutes and resolves itself in a peeling-the-paint-off-the-walls-distortion apex that does not so much cross a finish line as obliterate it. Righteously.

Clearly, the set is over. Radio Moscow have gone as far out as they’re going to go and after turning back multiple times along the way throughout “Deceiver” or “No One Knows Where They’ve Been,” they’ve finally decided to stay all the way gone. As a fan of the band, I can’t say I blame them. I don’t ultimately know if New Beginnings will go down as the record that fully captures the vigor of what they bring to their live show, but its emphasis on the chemistry between GriggsMeier and Marrone is unmistakable, and the songs that comprise it make a compelling argument for Radio Moscow‘s work in the studio being no less essential to their impact than what they do onstage. In either context, they are not to be missed.

Radio Moscow, “Pacing” official video

Radio Moscow website

Radio Moscow on Thee Facebooks

Radio Moscow on Instagram

Century Media website

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