Remedy - 'Strange Fast Now'
Release in 2008 through Remedy Inc
www.myspace.com/remedyrocks

THE BAND:

Jenn Cherene -vocals
Graham Haswell - guitars
Lee Tuck - bass
Mark Dodds - drums

TRACK FRAGMENTS:

1.) “Last Demand” – The intro of this track opens with Mark playing a combination rhythm between his two tom-toms, floor toms, snare drum & bass drum.  The main musical intro kicks-in two measures into the intro with a rhythm guitar riff and bass line.  The way the song was engineered has the bass volume just a little lower than the rhythm guitar.  The rhythm for the song does not change until the opening lyric line.  In the way Graham and Lee wrote the guitar riffs and bass line lets the drum rhythm bleed through the arrangement.  There is a small breakdown section connecting the first chorus with the second verse.  The song has no lead guitar solo just a string of lead guitar licks underneath the vocal lines of the choruses.
2.) “Desire” –There are a couple of lead vocal accents over the top of this intro.  Jenn vocal lines of the verse reminded me a lot of early Pat Benetar songs.  Graham’s rhythm guitar riffs follow along with the lyrics word for word.  There is a drastic music arrangement change for the lead guitar solo section.  As the next chorus begins it starts slowly then builds with speed as it progresses.  There are also a couple of Jenn vocal overdubs during the last chorus.   
3.)  “Learn To Speak” – There was an extensive re-verbed effect attached to the rhythm guitar that opened this intro.  The musical verse has a Jazz feel to it and really draws you in to the point of to where you are not even paying attention to the vocals.  As the rhythm guitar progresses it gets more and more intense sounding.  This is this first song on the album that actually has a lead guitar solo.  It is a short minor solo however, a solo non-the-less.  After the lead guitar solo there is a bass line change.  This bass line change switched the songs sound from a Jazz feel to more of a standard fifties Blues sound.
4.) “Midnight Till Morning” – This intro opens with a small snare fill before the rest if the band kick-in the musical pre-verse.  The highlight of the musical pre-verse had to be the bass line.  There is a small rhythm change underneath the vocal lines of the musical verse.  The musical and lyrical verses of this track were very reminiscent of the stuff Hootie & The Blowfish were writing on their freshman release.   This track has a lead guitar solo which musically was arranged with the drum fills perfectly. 
5.) “Priests & Preachers” – This intro was heavily influenced from some of Led Zepelin’s later material.  There is a small rhythm guitar change connecting the intro with the musical verse.  After the first chorus there is a small minor solo section that connects the chorus with the next verse.  Through this piece of musical there are several musical breaks as far as I’m concerned these musical breaks were the only highlight of the song.
6.) “Sacred Deep Inside” – This track opens with Mark playing a sixteenth-note drum rhythm.  The bass line and lead guitar effects of the main intro were very reminiscent of psychedelic sixties music.  The band used the same musical rhythm for the verse as the intro.  The rhythm does not actually change until the musical chorus.  There is a small guitar effect added to the rhythm riffs of the second verse.  For the last chorus of the outro Jenn overdubbed her lead vocals.

     Jenn Cherene is a decent vocalist for this style of music.  However, whoever at Global Music that wrote the press release and penned Jenn as the next Janis Joplin should have their head examined!  When you make statements like that you better make damn sure you can back them up!  Now not saying Jenn’s a bad vocalist, she’s just no Janis.  All in all the band has the ingredients to make a great rock band, just not the songs.  My advice to the band would be this.  Really look at the six songs on this EP and use them as your foundation and build from that. 
     However, if your fans of early Pat Benetar, Hootie & The Blowfish this CD maybe for you.  However, with the economy being what it is, my best advice would be to go you their myspace page and check their songs out before I bought the CD especially since it just consists of six songs.