Re: What song are you listening to right now?
Henrik Freischlader Band - Missing Pieces (2020)
Henrik Freischlader - Recorded By Martin Meinschaffer II (2022)
After a recent triumph of a show at Hartlepool, I managed to get a signed copy of the most recent album, so had to send off to Cable Car Records for the earlier of the two albums, and have to say, they turned the order round in quick time...
As you can see, I've listed these separately as one is "Band" and the other is Henrik "solo". And just to make it clear, the Meinschafer II is the second album Henrik has recorded with the producer, after a gap of 12 years.
As expected then, even though there's little gap between the albums, there's a huge one in terms of style. Missing Pieces is very much a band album with Armin Alic on bass, Roman Babik on keys, Marco Zugner on sax & Moritz Meinschafer on drums and with Henrik handling the production. The feel of this 70 minute monster of an album is more funk and jazz than straight Blues, with what I'd say was a Hank Marvin styled opener - Opening; but it iis very classy throughout.
Another Missing Piece - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCybL8hOGh8
Opening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHaYC9KcLjY
If you think a 70 minute album is huge, then Recorded II trumps that, the 12 tracks stretch the CD format to it's 74 minute limit (or if you're a vinyl fan, then it's a perfect double album). This is very much more a straight Blues album, dripping with Gary Moore, Peter Green & Roy Buchanan influences and I'm going to stick my neck and say it'll grow into a classic of the genre. Yes, it has it's flaws; eschewing the band format, this time round Henrik handles the majority of the backing instruments, as well as the lead, with the exception of Hammond and Fender Rhodes, which are in the hands of Moritz Fuhrhop. The interplay between the 2 is stunning. Henrik is credited with the production but the mixing & mastering is handled by Meinschafer and the results are superb. You get the feeling on the majority of the tracks that Henrik and Moritz got into a groove and the tape was left to run, rather than cut the creativity short; the final track, Hands of Jesus runs 13 minutes, and you probably won't hear a better outro solo this year.
The Question - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stZ3GYDFbDE