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The postman always rings twice
Our contributor from Germany posted a summary of the Rocks magazine coverage of the upcoming Deep Purple album in the comments, and it deserves to be promoted to a news item.
The feature is quite interesting and in depth, here are a few selected highlights for our non-German readers courtesy of Uwe Hornung. All the usual caveats about reverse translation apply.
- The new album is to sound more progressive, say the “Rocks” scribes (hardly a surprise, ever since Don joined, the band has become more and more a prog rock one, it’s in his DNA …)
- Whoosh! (that’s the title of the new album) will contain seven songs, most of them lengthy. The title is to allude to the world being eventually washed away due to climate change.
- Bob Ezrin is perceived as a hard taskmaster by the band, especially by Steve Morse, though it was Steve’s idea to use him in the first place (after having experienced him as a producer when Steve was with Kansas in the 80s).
- Bob sees Purple as “a genre of their own, not classic, not contemporary, if I had to give it a name I’d choose ‘rock grandeur'”. He also deems them as a quintessentially British band (and all the better for it, “only a Brit band could play the music as they do”) and Morse’s guitar style as “international and eclectic enough to fit in”. Improvisation — a dying art — is what makes Purple stand out, past, present, and future.
- Steve had a hard time adjusting from Jon to Don, Jon was telepathic, “with Don there were clashes during the recording of Bananas”, but that is now all water under the bridge. Everyone in the band is now in agreement that Don is the “mad professor” and the off-the-wall musical driving force.
- While Little Ian deems Purple’s 70s production work as “still sounding good today, they were products of their time and made for the audience we had back then”, he rates Bob Ezrin as creating productions that “sound like they stem from us, yet are made for today”.
- Roger hated the sound of Rapture of the Deep (the album) immediately.
- back in the day Bob Ezrin was approached by Purple Records to produce Made in Japan, but he was busy with other things, so he turned the offer down only to see MiJ become the iconic live album of the 70s with huge sales making him think “Damned, I sure messed up that one!”. Well, the postman always rings twice.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
I really like rapture, maybe the production isn’t there but I love a lot of the songs
February 21st, 2020 at 04:12Michael Quinlan I agree, good songs in
February 21st, 2020 at 06:06Thank you for sharing.Great summary.You rock.
February 21st, 2020 at 07:28“Roger hated the sound of Rapture of the Deep (the album) immediately”. I look forward to Roger re-mixing Rapture of the Deep, but it’ll never happen…
February 21st, 2020 at 11:23In the documentary film that came with the last CD you could see that Ezrin was tough, especially on Morse.
February 21st, 2020 at 11:40“Whoosh! (that’s the title of the new album) will contain seven songs, most of them lengthy”
I’m sorry but that is not true. I read the article twice, because the speculation about the album only containig seven songs has been going on for days in the Runboard Forum but there is no part in the article where it says that the album only contains seven songs.
February 21st, 2020 at 12:03The magazine was given the oppurtunity to listen to seven new songs exclusively but they don’t say anywhere that there are only seven songs on the album!
Simply cannot wait to hear the new album. Ezrin knows how to get the best out of Purple and I love that the band continues to evolve with him at the helm. It’s still Purple, but they continue to explore musical direction and ideas.
Whoosh!, if that is the title, well, it is just terrible. Can’t judge a book by it’s cover and all that. I’m just thankful that the lads are keeping at it and continuing to put out some incredible work.
I love that the goodbye just keeps getting longer.
Have a great day all.
February 21st, 2020 at 13:41OMG, I am not worthy! This is the p(o)ur(p)-le merit for me.
Danke schön!
February 21st, 2020 at 14:01@6: You’re right, Fitz, they don’t say it’s only seven tracks, they just only mention and analyze seven tracks. My bad for reading it that way.
I always prefer Purple stretching out musically, they were never a three- or four-minute song band and where they did (Stormbringer had an unusual amount of shorter songs), I tended to feel shortchanged! They need to breathe.
Purple is a band that comes in eras. Mk I, II, III, IV, the Joe Lynn Turner excursion (unjustly vilified though I’m certainly not the greatest JLT fan on earth, but S&M had its moments) – the Morse/Airey era is just another one and should be appreciated as such. Just like Mk II didn’t need to sound like Mk I and Mk III/Mk IV not like Mk II, these guys don’t need to replicate Blackmore era(s). The current senior line up – likely to be the last – has its own merits. Purple will never again record an album encapsulating the Zeitgeist like In Rock did. Or as young man-cocksure as Burn. They are now like an old jazz band with very good, yet partially non-original musicians. There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, the current line up is probably the prog(g)iest one since Mk 1, so we’ve nicely come full circle.
February 21st, 2020 at 20:00Certainly glad Made in Japan wasn’t engineered & mixed by anyone else, the world just wouldn’t be the same. The fact that Glover & Paice were involved in the mixing also, say a lot. That ensures that the bottom end is not neglected, like so many other bands from that era!
February 21st, 2020 at 21:40Nothing worse than hearing drums sounding like cardboard boxes being kicked around from behind a wall of mattresses! 70’s Sabbath take note. I forgot Ezrin produced or co produced Kansas ‘In The Spirit of Things’ album. I do own the Kansas albums, so there is another Ezrin produced album I have. There are probably a few others buried in my collection. I remember Ezrin saying before the Now What album that he wanted to put the ‘Deep’ back into Purple. I knew what he meant as others did also no doubt. It sort of worked to a degree & there is a fine example of an outsider who knows about songwriting also, getting involved to sort things out a little, for the better! Cheers.
If you think the title is important or the album cover is important then you have been supporting the wrong band for over 50 years.
February 22nd, 2020 at 00:53Bnnanas had the worst Album name and cover but had the best musical material and lyrics of the current line up.
The music always wins in years to come.
Rapture of The Deep was a great album. Shame Roger didn’t like it but I think I can understand as it had more of a “Pop rock” focus than regular Deep Purple sound, but still had lots of great tracks on the album.
I am looking forward to “Whoosh!”
February 22nd, 2020 at 06:37“Only” 7 songs? Remember, there are “only” 7 Songs on “In Rock”, “Fireball”, “Machine Head”, “Who do we think we are”! And how GREAT These 7 songs are!
Have a nice Day!
Can’t hardly wait ’til April…
February 22nd, 2020 at 11:32Now What?! was a good record, Infinite not so much although it had “The Surprising” which I really liked. The documentary of Infinite was ominous for a few reasons to say the least. Steve must have the patience of a saint.
I don’t think that Purple missed out so much on a good producer in the past. The music that came from the band always stood out. Rapture of the Deep might not have the best sound but I consider it a far better album than Infinite.
“Whoosh!” … despite the context … what the hell?!
February 22nd, 2020 at 15:19Felicidades a la mejor banda de Rock DEEP PURPLE
February 22nd, 2020 at 19:23God if you believe in God has given us humans the blessing of hearing from our ears. Please use them wisely before you make assumptions of what if a producer produced this album or not. For me when an album produced 50 years ago and still sounds great then the producer is damn good. Please don’t slack off Martin Birch achievement in the production of great album by saying what if this producer of that producer could have done.
February 22nd, 2020 at 19:32Sorry if I sound rude but it’s only fair to respect Martin Birch full stop. Trust your ears
Peace, love and respect to you all.
Was the magazine sure about that album title?.
February 22nd, 2020 at 20:51Are they absolutely 100% sure it was “Whoosh!” & not “Whoops!”?. 😈
The “problem” with this band is their old fans still expect the band composes tunes sound like what ritchie did
February 23rd, 2020 at 01:22#14 is completely right.
IMHO I would like to add that in Infinte , ONLY 3 songs are really remarkable , “The Surprising” , as Mr. Tommy mentioned before, “Bird of Prey” , and the opening track, “Time for Bedlam”.. the rest are easy forgettable songs.
I do not expect anything more from “whoosh”,”Whoops” (or whatever ridiculous name Gillan decides to give to this album) , I think it will be another album like Infinite.. 2 o 3 (or maybe less) tracks to remember and the rest fillers songs of old men playing rock and roll.
“Now What ?!” was a much much better album than infinite , full of variety, experiments, creativity, searching .. maybe the death of Jon Lord inspired them in a way they now has lost.
As with Infinite, I fear this new one would be another DP Album I won’t buy .
February 23rd, 2020 at 17:43Whoosh . Wasnt that the sound that preceded Fireball?
February 23rd, 2020 at 18:51Rapture wasn’t dismal, but I thought the songwriting on Bananas on the whole better (even if the production was kind of rough, with Rapture it was more dreary than rough). Just like Abandon was a darker album to the magnificent Purpendicular, Rapture was darker than Bananas. And while I generally like dark albums – Deep Sabbath’s Born Again is among my favorites -, I don’t think they work so well with Purple. Which is why for me Abandon and Rapture rank behind the other output of the Morse/Lord and Morse/Airey era (they are not per se bad albums though).
What I like about Ezrin’s work with Purple is that he has given the music a warm, organic halo – I don’t hear that on either the Glover or the Bradford productions. At the same time, he has gone out of his way not to overproduce Purple – Ezrin is noted (or notorious, depending on your tastes) for creating these big orchestral soundscapes, think of Alice Cooper Group/Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, Kiss, Lou Reed, Kansas, Andrea Bocelli and even Hanoi Rocks (Two Steps From The Move sounds like no other HR album) productions, lots of ambient echo (bit of Phil Spector school there), harmony guitar overdubs, strings, sound effects, children choirs (Schools Out & Another Brick in the Wall – he does like kids joining in on the chorus!). Rather than “ezrinize” Purple, he really listened to their music and then did something to their music that enhanced it, but stayed true to Purple’s history.
February 24th, 2020 at 15:03Interesting points. Like Roger I don’t like the sound of ‘Rapture…’, I also feel the same about ‘Bananas,’ I never understood why they went back to Michael Bradford for a second album. I have really enjoyed the two produced by Bob, and the band have clearly enjoyed the experience. I have confidence that the new album will be of the same high quality, which is pretty amazing at this stage in the band’s career.
February 24th, 2020 at 15:40@19 errol arias, well, you know you’ve got The Highway Star audience… but all we’ve got is you!.
February 25th, 2020 at 04:11😉
I agree with Errol 19 on the outstanding tracks and would maybe add johnnys band and all i got is you as the two that deserve to be on a purple album the rest dont make the grade .
February 25th, 2020 at 14:11What’s wrong with the title?
Since the dawn of (the child in) time, Gillan’s/Purple’s album title ideas have mostly been word playish (Purpendicular, Abandon, In Rock. Slaves & Masters), comical (Bananas, Come Taste the Band – Bolin misquoted Liza Minnelli’s lyric from Cabaret -, Now What?!), somewhat inexplicable (Machine Head, but, hey, it’s way better than having called their best album “Tuner”) or tongue in cheek (Rapture of the Deep, Perfect Strangers, Who Do We Think We Are, House of Blue Light, The Battle Rages On), they are mostly titles working on several levels, just like Ian Gillan’s lyrics who rank him head and shoulders over any other heavy rock vocalist I know. (Legendary playwright David Coverdale excepted, of course!)
Only Fireball, Burn and Stormbringer followed the “let’s name the album after the first song on it” lame rule, though with Burn there was at least the insinuation that post-Mk II Purple still had fire in them (which they did).
I like “Whoosh!” as a title – typical Gillanism it is.
February 25th, 2020 at 15:36Whoosh!
February 26th, 2020 at 23:53Great title.
Looking forward to it.
I recently listened to the Deep Purple albums that I haven’t listen to for years and was surprised how much I liked them. The only exception was Rapture of the Deep. I think that I listened to it once when it first came out and then again yesterday. I don’t like the sound and there isn’t a single song on the album that I need to hear again. Definitely on the bottom of my list. I like the progressiveness of the last two albums so I look forward to Whoosh!.
March 9th, 2020 at 03:49