Gary Moore - A Different Beat.
Gary Moore
A Different Beat
(BMG)
By Paul Davies
Never a stranger to a challenge, Gary Moore was in danger of becoming a little bit 'trendy' by melding his clear love for the blues with modern, 1999, dance beats. The result is a curiosity of many intriguing musical moments most of them of the toe-tapping variety for whichever genre takes your fancy. The dayglo orange vinyl format of this release won't light up like a glo-stick in the dark, but is, nevertheless, highly desirable as this is the first time this recording has been released on vinyl. It’s a collectable 12'’ of Moore's 12th solo album release, no less. The experimental contents are further provided by drummer extraordinaire Gary Husband and keyboards/programming by Roger King, later to join up with another boundary-expanding guitarist: Steve Hackett. Programming is the zeitgeist of this period as Phil Nicholls concentrates on just that to give Moore beats. The first track Go On Home heralds in this new direction with Moore pedalling a Wah-Wah motif before those dance beats bang in to be challenged by Moore's exquisite bottleneck play and his mean-mouthed vocal delivery takes this track all the way back home.
Shuffling percussion and programmed beats underpins the blues torch song elements to Lost In Your Love on which Moore's vocal is surprisingly excellent. Worry No More is a banger in all senses where the techno elements back up smouldering guitar play on this smoking hot tune. Keeping the heat turned up, Moore blasts his way through an incendiary cover of Hendrix's Fire before he turns down the musical wick with beautiful guitar licks on the subtle Surrender. What is obvious is that the quality of songwriting and musicianship takes precedence over the programmed beats which don't always detract from the source material. In fact, on songs such as Bring My Baby Back the 'burbling' beats work with and not against what's going down in the song. However, there's a clanger in every experimental new step and the annoying techno rhythm samples on Can't Help Myself (really?) remain an awful faux pas and bete noir to these ears twenty-plus years later! In hindsight, the throwaway Fatboy feels like it's poking fun at the then samples at hand. Thick creamy guitar licks over a simple backing, with DJ noises, close out this original album that remains a brave and largely successful endeavour by the much-missed Gary Moore. An E-Z Rollers remix of Can't Help Myself bonus track is fun due to Moore's singular guitar talent and not-bad vocals to boot. A different beat, for sure, but one where the songs hold up remarkably well if some of the technology doesn't. Thus, proving that you can't beat excellent musicians having a proper blow-out! Why gild the lily when the source material and musicianship is this good?
