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More than 28 years ago one of the finest records in music
history was released. TOUCH was the name of the band and owing
a little thanks to RITCHIE BLACKMORE of RAINBOW/DEEP PURPLE
the band was able to sign a major deal and released their
one and only album in late 1979/early 1980. Despite some small
hitsingles, sadly the album never reached the success it deserved
to get. However, in Europe and Japan the album was considered
a Cult Classic, especially among the fans of AOR and Pomprock.
TOUCH was the magical mixture of STYX, JOURNEY, TOTO and QUEEN.
Rich keyboards, big flashy guitarwork, catchy hooklines, high
pitched clean lead vocals, superb harmonyvocals and killer
choruses is what made this record perhaps one of the finest
in history.
An absolute AOR CLASSIC and perhaps THE album that did
it for me, because after hearing this album back in 1993,
it got me into obscure AOR and gave me the reason to keep
on digging for gems like this until the present day. Of course
TOUCH stands high above any record I heard afterwards, because
it is such an incredible album and almost unbelievable it
didn't reach the big success back in the late 70s/early 80s.
Touring in Europe as support for RAINBOW could have been the
big break, even playing the famous Donington Monsters Of Rock
Festival in the UK, with TOUCH perhaps being the very first
band ever to play on a pure Hardrock orientated Fest in Europe!
Anyway, it wasn't meant to be, as a few years later the band
split and it's members went on having other successes, of
whom MARK MANGOLD kept true to his AOR roots, writing incredible
material for MICHAEL BOLTON, THE SIGN, DRIVE SHE SAID, etc.
etc. Back to the TOUCH album. Yes it was re-issued onto CD
before and yes, FRONTIERS RECORDS did a wonderful job some
10 years ago releasing everything TOUCH ever did on 2 CDs,
remastered and sounding terrific, a 10+++ back then. Now recently
in Japan this CD was re-released, with an additional DVD!!!
And here we are in the year 2008 in the UK and the label
ROCK CANDY RECORDS doing a new re-issue, a 2008 remastering
of the original album and some might find this a bit over-the-top,
I am here to inform you about the release and since it remains
a timeless classic I can only give this release 10 points.
Songs like "Don't you know what love is" (one of the best
songs of all times, who said MUTT LANGE was the man of the
big harmonyvocals?), "Listen (Can you feel it)", "Love don't
fail me now" (incredible semi-ballad), "So high" (amazing
Keyboard/Synthesizerwork by MARK MANGOLD in the style of GREGG
GIUFFRIA), "When the spirit moves you", "Yes You need to Rock
and Roll" are unbelievable songs that belong to the absolute
best AOR and Pomprock has ever offered!
Praising this gem is not enough and in case you don't
own it, well this is another chance to get hold of it. I must
say that this new remastering sounds even bigger and better
than the FRONTIERS release from 10 years ago. Play it loud
on your stereo to hear how incredible TOUCH sounded almost
30 years ago now. TOUCH had it all, but somehow TOTO had "Hold
the line" and STYX and QUEEN were already big in 1979, so
it was hard back then to become superstars, with JOURNEY as
real competitor due to the fact they had just introduced STEVE
PERRY as their new lead singer. Nevertheless, their album
from 1979 is one of the best albums in history, right next
to JOURNEY's 'Escape' and 'Infinity', SURVIVOR's 'Vital signs'
and 'Caught in the game', FORTUNE's 1985 album, so get it
while you can, especially since this is a new huge sounding
2008 remastering!
(Points: 10 out of 10)
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