Rossland Radio Co-op your voice in the wilderness

“BRAND NEW DAY” Racer (Late Model Racer) *** ½
This is my 4th or 5th Racer album, methinks… it is his most varied work yet, the best of the lot.

Racer is a one man band, aided and abetted by modern recording technology that allows him to record in the comfort of his own home. His main instrument is the guitar and he is a Tony Iommi fan, so the focus of his music is that very instrument. “Brand New Day” features better drum programming than I’ve heard from him before, and the keyboard flavoring on tracks like “Powdered Wigs” was a delightful surprise.

It’s fairly rare that an all-instrumental album can hold my attention, even when played by acknowledged masters like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani, and that is the case with Racer’s work too. “Brand New Day” kind of feels like the soundtrack a caper flick, or maybe a football movie. That some of his music would have a dramatic ‘sports feel’ comes as no shock as I happen to know he has a racing-based sports radio show on Saturdays in D.C.

By way of comparison, “Brand New Day” recalls older Scorpions as much as anything. Racer lays down the riffs without being too fancy or shmancy. He has a good ear for what works and while I can hear him pushing on some of the solos, he doesn’t try to reach past his capabilities as a player. Racer is a metalhead through and through, but the tasty accents in tracks like “Caliente” and “Czar”, plus the aforementioned “Powdered Wigs” show that there’s more in his musical arsenal than just Scorps or Sabbath.

Racer gets better with each disc, and I’m already looking forward to what he comes up with next.

KEY CUTS: “Danger”, “Powdered Wigs”, “St. Petersburg Sunrise”