Hidden Masters- Of This & Other Worlds

Rise Above Records / Metal Blade Records
2013

Three men and a cause. That's the essence of this Glasgow-based entity known as Hidden Masters. Those three men are the vocalist/guitarist David Addison, vocalist/bassist Alasdair C Mitchell (who also plays piano and organ) and vocalist/drummer John Nicol. As for the cause? On this, the group's debut LP, the trio embark on a journey straight into the heart of psychedelic rock and pop band. Make that psychedelic rock and pop band of the 60's variety. Without a doubt these three are exceptional musicians with talent that would have been right at home during the later day, musical exploration era, of both The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Whether it's the sugar sweet group melodies that cut right to the core of what made the 60's and early 70's such a magical time to begin with (think along the lines of an acid-rock version of  The Association or even Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) or the band's natural ability to casually switch things up between folk-rock (The Byrds), classic rock (The Doors) and even hard rock/proto-metal (Black Sabbath) it's all nothing short of brilliant! The influences that these three gentlemen bring to the grand party are as varied as the music itself on "Of This & Other Worlds". A casual walk through the other day of this album, with my own two teenagers also listening in admiration to this 10-track LP, opened up our eyes and ears to the sounds and styles (all of which were splashed against the canvas in these exploding waves of color!) of each and everyone of those Hidden Masters influences. From The Doors to Queen to The Who it's all here under the covers of Hidden Master's sound. Any band who sites the likes of  Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Buddy Holly, The Moody Blues, Earth & Fire, The Move, Buffalo Springfield, Yes and black Sabbath as influences obviously will be interesting, but it's how simple that all of this sounds seem to be that proves to be the real difference maker. It's rock and roll with all the trimmings (seriously this one rolls from one extreme to the other) while it's also highly experimental (Black Sabbath, Yes and even The Zombies? Really?) and downright addicting! There's just so much fabulous variety going on within these tracks that it begs just one question. That is where has this band been hiding all this time?