About this product

Product Identifiers

ProducerDeniz Tek; Greg Wales

Record LabelYep Roc

UPC5021456141944

eBay Product ID (ePID)16050192835

Product Key Features

Release Year2006

FormatCD

GenreRock

Run Time46 Mins 38 Seconds

StyleHard Rock

ArtistRadio Birdman

Release TitleZeno Beach

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DistributionMSI Music Distribution

Country/Region of ManufactureUSA

Number of Discs1

EngineerGreg Wales

ReviewsRolling Stone (p.100) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A]s fast and fierce as the few, hugely influential records the band made in its first lifetime." Spin (p.111) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]hey're strikingly fleet, tough, dexterous, and have a vicious bite." Mojo (Publisher) (p.110) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Tek's scorching prowess and Younger's zealous delivery ignite 'Connected' and 'We've Come So Far'."

Additional informationPersonnel: Rob Younger (vocals); Deniz Tek, Chris Masuak (guitar); Pip Hoyle (keyboards); Russell Hopkinson (drums). Recording information: BJB Studios, Surry Hills. Photographers: Tony Mott; Deniz Tek. After 30 years, it is reasonable to expect that a new Radio Birdman record is an iffy proposition. The Australian rock band led by Ann Arbor guitarist and songwriter (and then medical student) Deniz Tek in the late '70s recorded two classic albums, Radios Appear in 1978 -- issued in a different version from its Australian original -- and the import-only Living Eyes, recorded and released down under that same year. The band is the stuff of legend. For the annual Big Day Out in 1996, Deniz Tek, vocalist Rob Younger, and Chris Masuak, all of whom had been active musically in other concerns and stayed in touch, re-formed and played with keyboardist Pip Hoyle and a rhythm section to enormous acclaim. Bassist Jim Dickson joined in 2000 and drummer Russell Hopkinson signed on in 2005. Simply put, Zeno Beach is better, far better, than anyone had any right to expect. The twin blasting guitars of Tek and Masuak with Younger's vocals (he has always been the quintessential rock & roll frontman), along with a smoking rhythm section attack, bring the make or break down to the songs. While there isn't anything here on the level of "Do the Pop," "Aloha Steve and Danno," or "455 SD," there isn't a weak second here. And this record is wilder and rawer than anything they've released in the past. This band isn't rusty, either. Produced by Tek with Greg Wales, Zeno Beach screams out of the gate with "We've Come So Far (To Be Here)," with that quintessential guitar rock, the speeded up four/four time attack, and Younger standing up tall and letting the words pour out of him. There are all those small trademarks, the tight, three- and four-note guitar fills, the two-chord riff in between lines, the piano playing in the break instead of a predictable guitar solo, and that crisp bass and drum attack. "You Just Make It Worse," begins as a strutter, with both guitars playing power chords riffs and Hoyle's organ bringing up the rear. Younger knows how to phrase, when to stress, and when to slur. "Connected" has the killer hook of a "Do the Pop"; it's got the stops and starts and the popping snare drums and boom-smasher cymbals. And when the guitar solo happens, it's that roiling three-note machine gunfire that brings the next verse home. There is one of those spooky numbers here, à la "The Man in the Golden Helmet," it's called "The Brotherhood of the Al Wazah," but it's angular and freaky and moves along like some dark and silvery liquid revealing itself in total only after it ends. What's so welcome on Zeno Beach is the way the whole band gets in on the songwriting act. Tek wrote the lion's share of the cuts by himself, but Younger and Masuak are in there too, and Hoyle wrote the title cut (the album's closer). It's the most accessible thing here and one of the album's gr

Number of Audio ChannelsStereo

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Zeno Beach by Radio Birdman (CD, 2006)

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