| In Their Very First Take, Breathless On Stage Records, 2008
The Breathless from England? No. Mr. Breathless from Finland? No. Those Breathless are from Greece and have been playing together already for 6 years! So far their songs were appearing only on compilations, but finally the time has come for their very own debut album! It includes 12 tracks with ten originals (written by the vocalist and rhythm guitar player Manos Wild) and only two covers. Let’s get right to the point. I will start from the covers. The first one is "Twenty Flight Rock" (number six; just right in the middle of the list). The band added to that classical song a neo sound. Even though voice of the singer has got reflection of Eddie Cochran vocal, Gretch guitar player Johnny Iron brings you stright to the 1980's. And it is played very well. "Who Slapped John?" (the last one) is another cover song. This one has been changed a lot. Not much reminds of Gene Vincent style. It has lost authenticity, but has more craziness. And it has Breathless style in it. Oh yes, was very good idea to make it "live" and add applauses to the end, which gives you a double idea: "thanks to heros who have given us that music", but also "wow, we like this band!" The own song probably can make the most proper description of Breathless and their style. To judge their "story writting" skills will help booklet, which contains all lyrics. In all songs you can see direct influence of 1970’s and 1980’s neo rockabilly sound. Seems like Stray Cats, the Polecats, the Jets (and so on) were the main teaches of those rockin’ Greece guys; and looks like they were good students. The recording itself is very professional, I would say on very high level. And if the band had to wait to get that quality for their cd for six years, they were absolutely right. It certainly was worth of it. Concerning the songs, I must also mention one of the slow compositions "The Way We Used To Be". It is kind of a "big" song, which has some extra guests: two violins, a piano (which also stayed for the next song "Out Of Your Door") and additional vocal. Rest of the repertoire is equally good. Being slow or wild, all compositions are excellent performed. The drums give more support than lead, all guitars are working in balance. And let’s say the band together makes that Breathless sound. To make it more interesting, I want to add that the Thunderbirds were invited as the backing vocals; and they did perfect job. The cover also says that drumming was recorded by Breathless’ previous drummer "Muppet" Alex, just to inform his big fans. Now it is time to make the final line. If the band wanted to show their abilities, to make their debut cd interesting, to prove that they also deserved the place on world-wide neo-rockabilly scene, then I am sure, their mission is for hundred procent fulfilled. Tracklisting: Bandmembers: Breathles Biography on this website: CLICK HERE! Contact information: Reviewed by Kitti, 2009 |
