Chris Masuak's Dog Soldier - Chris Masuak's Dog Soldier (I-94 Bar Records)
I guess this is an album that exists against all odds. The fact that its creation involved multiple players from across different locations and a ridiculously small amount of studio time would tend to lead towards suspicions of a more piecemeal offering.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Trying to make my way through the credits suggests there are both Spanish and Australian divisions of Dog Soldier but it sounds like Stuart Wilson (drums) and Tony Bambach or Phil Hall (bass) are doing most of the heavy lifting in the Rhythm Section and they are just the well-oiled propulsive system you would expect them to be.
Aside from an un-named closing track, there is a consistency of intent running throughout this albeit short disc. Not that short is a bad thing. It echoes a time when an album could be 15 minutes per side instead of the endless slog of a '90s CD album.
Dog Soldier sets its course and sails it true.
Let's look at the strengths of Dog Soldier. Firstly, Chris is probably singing better than he ever has. The songs have a poppy '70s America hard rock sound. The sort of sound you'd stumble over in the more obscure corners of that old "Midnight Special" television show.
I searched around the back corners of my head trying to nail down some comparison. Even one of those dumb "such and such meets some other guys" things. I was fairly pleased to realise I couldn't.
This is a throwback to the glory days when people tried, for good or ill, to do their own thing. In my book, you earn points just for doing that.
Lyrically, Chris has also dropped the poisonous barbs towards ex-bandmates (unless he's hiding them so deep down that I can't spot them). Spite, of course, can be a driving force for creativity but it's probably better for this album that the hatchet is buried anywhere other than someone else's back.
Instead, Chris returns to the roots of American Gothic and Noir tales. The realm of "Death by the Gun" and "Didn't Tell the man." There's also a flirtation with the Carny Midway without stooping to Cave's Biblical indulgences. The album has a time and a place; a mid-twentieth century imagined America where the world really was a television.
If I have one small complaint about the record it's that some of the solos are over reliant on virtuosity at the expense of creating a consistent whole. But some of you guys are just going to dig that the most. So, what the hell do I know?
Overall, this is a rock-solid release worth all of its five stars. - Bob Short
