KillerStar is a new product from the hands and voices of Rob Fleming and James Sedge. They've been around the scene for a few years but this is a real departure from what I expected to hear. Not that this is any kind of disappointment – it’s superb.
Rob & James have surrounded themselves with some stunning names – Earl Slick on guitar, Mike Garson on piano, Gail Ann Dorsey on bass, Tim Lefebvre on bass, Emm Gryner on vocals, Donny Maccaslin on Sax and Mark Platt on guitar and keyboards. You may recognize them as backing a certain Mr Bowie on a number of his seventies albums. Not that this is an attempt to ‘do a Bowie album’, however, the band were chosen by Bowie for a very special sound, and they have brought that to this album. The album flows from Rob & James love of seventies pop and rock, and the songs – while there are Bowie influences here and there – could have come from that era or today with equal ease.
Most of the songs have a tight and punchy presentation, there is an epic feel to much of this and it goes without saying that the playing is simply stunning. Tracks such as ‘Falling Through’ and ‘Go (Hold On Tight)’ do have some Art-Rock feel while the rest of the album is rock with a pop tinge. There isn’t a weak track on the album but my personal favourites would be ‘You’re A Chameleon’ and ‘Falling Through’.
I listened to the album on CD and on vinyl and I would say that if you are of the vinyl persuasion, it is worth the uplift, but the CD sounds damn fine too.
