BloYaTop: Why Waltz Review

Happy new year everyone, and what better way to kick off the new year than by belatedly reviewing an album from 2012. BloYaTop are a little known three piece band (I suspect mostly because their Facebook and website pages give almost nothing about them except that they exist) consisting of Mr.E, the bassist and vocalist, Paul Huge on drums and Mark Ferguson on guitar; I wondered for some time which two out of the three names are fake? Why Waltz is the band’s second released studio album and it’s a pretty decent assortment of American style dirty blues and rock.

Generally the band relies heavily on a style of heavy, up tempo rock rhythms and big  chops and licks from guitarist Ferguson, who delivers some feverish solos in tracks ”Fire arm”  and ”Wrong Side Of The Door”; while at the end of the latter he leads into an inspired breakdown and outro riffing it up Zeppelin style. Both tracks have American rock sentiments and sensibilities with lyrics like ‘last man standing is one with the fire arm’ and the chorus of the latter is simply ‘I’m a man’ repeated. Mr.E, the singer has an interestingly gruff, monotone voice that lends itself perfectly when the band plays the sort of ‘born to be wild’ rock songs like ”Poker Joker” or ”Demolition Man”; They have the sound to fit that stereotypical dingy biker bar room. However, not on every track does Mr.E’s voice work quite as well; listening to ”Rusty Rooster” you realize that he’s not a natural singer but in  ”Make It Worth,” the bands only slow ballad song is lyrically and musically emotionally unengaging, which in part is due to a lack of vocal range. It’s by far the worst on the album because they went away from their strengths, it’s the only song where Ferguson  noticeably over plays and the climaxing guitar becomes a big nothing much like the rest of the song.  ”Tampico Honey” stands out as their best number on the album, it’s a dirty song to one of the slickest licks of last year. It’s a song that as you listen to it feels drenched in sin and debauchery.

Overall, the album is pretty good. It’s interesting because it seems as if the band recognizes their own strengths as a band and they play to them for the most part. When they are at their best, they play mean, choppy, hard rock and roll and it’s fun listening; particularly impressive is the controlled, effective play of Ferguson. BloYaTop could be a very fun live act to see considering this album, hopefully they get signed to a label and continue to grow as a band.

The Review: 7.5/10

Can’t Miss Tracks

– Wrong Side Of The Door
– Why Waltz
– Demolition Man
– Tampico Honey

The Big Hit

– Tampico Honey

 Review by Josh May