The Powergrade
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Review of "Working Men"
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By: H. Koch
'm talking about "Working Men", the new CD by The Powergrade, an Austrian all star fusion trio, that is doing their thing in a wide
musical area between heavily grooving funk, slick balladry and bashing rock.
The driving force behind The Powergrade is Austrian guitarist Gerald
Gradwohl, an extraordinarily busy and dedicated musician, whose working
schedule as teacher, bandleader and session player is impressive. The
guy's attitude might have inspired the title of his band's debut album
which features equally hard working drummer Nico Bernhardt and Wolfgang
Wograndl, bassist in Gradwohl's other fusion band Threeo.
The basic direction becomes clear by listening to gentle funk stompers
like "The Cat Is Black", the creeping groove of "42nd Street", the
passionate high drama soloing in "Notes Of Farewell" or the guitar
synthesizer showcase "The Sweeper". These suggest that Gerald's
compositional approach as well as his guitar playing are inspired by
Frank Gambale's late 1980/early 1990 work. This concept is rounded out
by a couple of tunes that have the band go into power trio mode, namely
the driving riffs of the fake metal instrumental
"Razor's Edge" or the angst driven "Fear", that sounds like Mother's
Finest reinventing grunge. The
Powergrade's music is uplifting and has a positive vibe. If you're into
European funk jazz a la Triton, Matalex or Jazz Pistols, you would
probably like "Working Men" pretty much.
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©
H. Koch / Fusenetter
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