| Track by Track Review
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Disc One
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Incense and Peaches: From the Archives Volume 1
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Down the Wire
There is some serious funk built into this thing. The vocals are classy, and the tune rocks well. This thing is really on fire. |
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Against the Grain
More killer funk is on display here. Hughes' vocals are so strong, and the arrangement really manages to groove and rock at the same time. |
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Jackie Got the Call Today
A mellower number, this has some cool keyboards and more in the mix. It's a bit spacey and trippy and has some serious soul and funk in the mix. |
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Jolayne
Funk and fusion merge on this tune. It's a classy piece, but not really all that rock based. Still, it just oozes cool. |
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Let's Get Together
High energy funk rock is the driving force of this killer tune. This is one of my favorite cuts on this first CD. It's just so strong. Everything about it works so well. |
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Stoned
A bit more of a mainstream rock tune, the funk is still in the mix. There is almost a Motown vibe to this thing in some ways. It's catchy and energized. I could see this being an influence on Prince. |
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What Is Your Role?
There is a healthy helping of fusion built into this thing. It's funky, soulful and quite cool. |
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You Are My Dream!
A balladic cut, this has a lot of fusion at its core. It's evocative, soulful and tasty. |
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Doublelife
Soulful mellow fusion is the driving force on this number, too. It has a tasty groove to it. There is a dance music break in this number, with a female spoken voice that seems to be taken from a dance lesson tape. |
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Push! (LA Demo)
Now, this thing really rocks. It's still packed full of funk, but also really screams, literally. It's a powerhouse and one of the highlights of this first CD. The guitar solo on this tune is so hot! |
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Inside & Above
This has an electronic kind of vibe to it. There are some intriguing flavors built into it. While it has a lot of fusion in the mix, there is definitely a bit of a progressive rock edge to the cut. I really love this cut. In fact, it might be my favorite of this first CD of the set. |
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Hey Ken, Are You Home?
This is a strange answering machine thing. |
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Disc Two
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Blitz Nightclub, Balange, Sweden (17/06/1993)
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Burn
There is a powerhouse introduction to this cut, and they launch out from there in style. The sound quality isn't great, but it's also not terrible. I suppose for a live recording from the 90s, it's not great, but this isn't that inferior to some actual live recordings from the early 70s. Hughes and his crew deliver this Deep Purple classic with fire and style. There is a bit of a hard rock meets classical exploration during the instrumental movement late in the piece. |
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Muscle and Blood
Another hard rocking tune, the recording quality on this is perhaps not as good as it was on the previous piece. While this isn't as strong a tune or recording as the opener was, it still rocks like crazy. The guitar solo is a killer, too. |
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A Right to Live
Another hard rocking tune, this is strong, but not really a standout. It has some cool hooks, though. |
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So Much Love to Give
This rocker is a bit on the soulful side. It's a classy cut that provides a bit of a slow-down and some variety. |
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You Are the Music
Another high energy rocking number, this is classy stuff. It really has some great moments and shines like crazy. Hughes celebrates the birthday of one of his band members by singing "Happy Birthday" to him at the end of this piece. |
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The House of the Rising Sun
This rendition of the old traditional song really captures the angst and pain of the piece. It's a bit like The Animals' version ramped up to 11. It's a particularly successful performance. |
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Coast to Coast
A mellower kind of groove, this works pretty well. It's not one of the highlights of the show, though. |
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This Time Around
This almost feels like a continuation of the previous piece. It has some sound quality issues later in the piece. |
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Gettin' Tighter
This one gets a funk break in the mix that brings us toward the fusion end of the spectrum. Still, overall it's a straight-ahead rocker with a lot of style. |
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You Keep on Moving
This is a powerhouse bluesy rocker. The closing section is just so potent. They really do reach one heck of an apex with this thing. |
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Smoke on the Water
Here is a Deep Purple tune from before Hughes' tenure in the band. This is a solid performance of the tune. I dig Hughes' vocal treatment of it. |
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Georgia on My Mind
This keyboard and vocal number isn't the best thing here. Hughes delivers some screaming vocal acrobatics, though. The rest of the band join in later in the piece, turning in a bluesy performance. |
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The Boy Can Sing the Blues
As you might guess from the title this is a blues rocker. It's a killer tune, too. It really rocks like crazy. |
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I Got Your Number
Another furious rocker, this has some definite Deep Purple stylings. It's another hard rocking tune that works well. |
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Disc Three
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Zoo Club, Goleborg, Sweden (10/09/1993)
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The Liar
There is a cool hard rocking, almost glam vibe to this thing. The sound quality seems a bit better than the previous disc. This energized and scorching. |
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The House of Rising Sun
I really dig this performance of this old chestnut. It has a great rocking vibe along with some seriously soulful blues. |
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Lay My Body Down
This rocker makes me think of Living Colour to a large degree. It's a killer tune that works really well in this live performance. |
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Coast to Coast
Another live rendition of this slower moving tune, the guitar soloing on this is inspired and powerful. |
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This Time Around
Here is a cut from Hughes' time in Deep Purple. This hard rocker gets an energized live performance here. |
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Gettin' Tighter
This is a killer number that works quite well. There is a cool funk break in the middle of the tune. |
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You Keep on Moving
A bluesy rocker, this is slow moving and particularly evocative. The keyboard jamming later is a nice touch, and the cut really powers up in the later sections. |
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I Got Your Number
This is a screaming hot hard-rocker with tons of energy. It's really on fire. |
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Georgia on My Mind
This soulful cut is the encore for the show. Personally, I don't think that it's as strong as some of the other material in the set, but it works. |
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Bonus Tracks:
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The Cathouse, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (08/11/1995)
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Big Time
The sound from this show is pretty good, too, but perhaps a bit distant. This is a hard rocking number that really scorches. |
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You Are the Music
This funky rocker is another powerhouse tune. It is also effective. The bass work later in the track is so funky and so cool. The guitar soloing is on fire, too. |
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Muscle and Blood
Running along the borders of metal, this is literally screaming hot. |
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This Time Around
There is a long interlude kind of thing before they launch into the actual soulful bluesy tune. The audience does quite a bit of singing along. There is some serious audience singing and clapping after the band is done. |
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Talkin' to the Messiah
This is a killer hard rocker and a strong performance. |
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Disc Four
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Gino, Stockholm, Sweden (10/11/1996 - part 1)
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Way Back to the Bone
This funk rocker is energized and fun. The recording quality is not bad. |
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Touch My Life
This blues rocker is hard edged and so cool. |
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Cover Me
I dig the organ sound on this thing. The cut works out from a hard-edged introduction to a mellower verse section. The cut makes good usage of the balance between mellower and rocking. |
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Push!
Funky rocking zones are on display as this number fires out of the gate. It's a powerhouse tune that works very well here. |
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Talk About It
This is a mellower bluesy rocker. It has some balladic moments and a soulful vocal performance. There is a lot of emotion in the piece. It also has some cool keyboard sounds. |
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First Step of Love
Another tune with a balance between mellower and more rocking sounds, this is good, but not a standout. |
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Coast to Coast
An interlude with vocal acrobatics begins this cut. This is another rendition of the cut we've heard a few times so far. It's a strong rendition and a pretty good recording of it. IN fact, perhaps this is the best take of the whole set. The keyboard and guitar jamming later in the track is so classy. |
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Your Love Is Alright
The funk is all over this as it starts. The cut grows out with a cool soulful jam. The bass work is so tasty. The keyboard jamming later really elevates the piece. The whole thing is cool, though. |
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Gettin' Tighter
This killer rocker works well in this performance. The funky jam mid-track works particularly well in this performance. They take it out into some cool stuff from there. It evolves into some mellower bluesy territory from there as they stretch this cut out. |
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I Don't Want to Live That Way Again
A mellow number as it starts, this has a lot of emotion and some cool hooks built into it. It's rather proggy in a lot of ways. It gets so powerful as it drives ever upward later in the number. |
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Disc Five
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Gino, Stockholm, Sweden (10/11/1996 - part 2)
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You Keep on Moving
Keyboard textures along with the vocals deliver the bulk of the first couple minutes of this piece. Hughes introduces the band as it continues and guitar begins to play a more prominent role. It remains slow and mellower, but does intensify. After the three-and-a-half-minute mark it powers out into some killer hard-edged blues rocking texture. It really evolves into quite a powerhouse before it's done. |
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Addiction
As this cut grinds in with an organ-laced rocking motif it calls to mind Deep Purple. It's a hard rocker that works really well. There is a Living Colour vibe to this. I dig the instrumental movement. There is a long section of the audience trying to get an encore out of Hughes at the end of this. |
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You Fool No One
A drum solo beings this number. The band joins, firing into this Deep Purple jam, well after the one-minute mark. This is on fire. It's a killer version of the track. They really put in a powerful performance. |
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Burn
One of my favorite Deep Purple tunes, no matter the lineup, this screams out of the gate. This thing is suitably incendiary here. They really do put in a great performance of the tune. |
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Bonus Tracks:
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Goodbye to Romance (1992)
This is a rather demo-like recording of the Ozzy Osbourne song. The vocal performance has some interesting changes here, but I definitely prefer the original. That said, it really does seem like a run through rather than a finished product. |
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12-Bar Blues (1992)
This is what you would expect given that title. It's a hard rocking, guitar blues jam. It's also quite cool. |
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Disc Six
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Live in Rome (30/05/2013)
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Stormbringer
This recording sounds a little distant. The cut is a killer live rendition of the classic Deep Purple title track. |
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Might Just Take Your Life
Here is another tune that was originally performed with Deep Purple. I've always been a big fan of this number, and this rendition works well. |
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Sail Away
Another hard rocking tune, this has a bluesy grind to it. It's another from the Deep Purple catalog. |
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Black Cloud
Here we get another hard rocking number that is quite effective. It has some cool guitar soloing built into it along with a nice groove. |
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Mistreated
Another old Deep Purple cut, this is another favorite of mine. This rendition has a lot of style and magic built into it, too. This thing has such cool sound here. The guitar soloing is tasty, too. At almost 13-and-a-half minutes of music, this is an extended cut, and they really use that space to explore in style. |
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Superstition
Here they turn their attention to the abundant catalog of Stevie Wonder, delivering a really rocking version of this classic tune. |
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Sinful
This is another tasty blues rocker that works quite well in this live performance. |
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Gettin' Tighter
This powerhouse rocker includes a short drum solo. They turn it out into a killer extended instrumental movement from there. The number really grooves, and each musician puts in an inspired performance. |
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You Keep on Moving
The audience sings along with a lot of this cool groove. It works out to a powerhouse blues rocking jam further down the road. They really get pretty intense as they continue. It drops back for a mellower section around the six-minute mark. |
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Encores:
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Soul Mover
This powerhouse number has a lot of funk and soul built into it. Yet, it's also a hard rocker. The vocal performance is bluesy and powerful. There is a drop back to just percussion and vocals later, and the audience participates in that second part. Eventually they bring this back out to a hard rocking full band treatment from there. |
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Burn
They close things with this Deep Purple scorcher. I think I like this performance better than the one from the previous show. When you consider that that one was strong, that says a lot about how good this thing is. It's a great way to end things in style. |
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