THE ROYAL PURPLE could simply be described as farfisa driven rock for those into combos such as THE FUZZTONES, THE CHESTERFIELD KINGS, THE CREEPY T’s, BABY WOODROSE, etc. This paints only part of the purple picture, however. This is not only just for adherents of the garage rock sound, but will possibly placate the power poppers in us as well. The sound here is really just like that of a sixties combo, except that the fidelity is quite a bit better. I hear some quality antecedents such as THE BYRDS, LOVE and MOBY GRAPE to some degree. The music here is very tight and the vocal harmonies are spot on. This group has a little less punk rock in them than some of their contemporaries and that is not a bad thing at all. Let’s face it some of us are really quite sick of the sloppy musicianship displayed on the retro rock scene. It’s nice to see some tightness from time to time.

“Transcendental Medication” has the psychedelia to live up to its mantra. Various instruments and vocals are hard panned to give it that ‘60’s flavor. Opening track “Sound on Sound” has the drums get the flange effect treatment towards the end of the song. “She’ll Love Again” has that killer 12 string. “Colors” has a carnival-esque feel to it. “I Want More” is quite the rave up with its handclaps and what not. “Sun Is So Bright” has the trippiest guitar sounds found here. Just about every tune here has something sonically or melodically to set it apart from the others even though there is a consistent sound throughout. Beyond the Farfisa there is plenty of Hammond B3 and what sounds to me like the Fender Rhodes. There are quite a bit of vocal layers and there appears to be 3 different lead singers in THE ROYAL PURPLE. It’s kind of hard for me to imagine this as a live band as there is so much going on (there would have to no less than 5 people to pull this sound off I would suppose). Live group or studio group THE ROYAL PURPLE are quite a groovy uplifting listen.

- Herring

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/theroyalpurple

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