Twenty 4 2015
Former KISS guitarist circles back to his past and progresses to nowadays.
A decade before bringing the bluesy edge to the likes of “Lonely Is The Hunter” and before his contributions to Billy Squier and Michael Bolton’s LPs, Bruce Kulick was a part of power trio KKB – KB being singing bassist Mike Katz and drummer Guy Bois. They didn’t make it as far as landing a recording deal but managed to lay down six pieces which saw a limited edition release in 2008 yet, once the original tapes had been found five years later, it was possible to restore the demo and reveal its real depth. More so, though living in different reaches of the world now, the veterans revitalized the spirit of their youth and came up with a new track.
Appropriately titled “Got To Get Back” to give name to the whole album, the single picks up where the rest of the songs left off, although it’s an opening tone-setter here with tight vocal harmonies pulled over a sparse jagged riff which splinters into a bass-punctured splashes of a rock ‘n’ roll solo, while the overall call-and-response arrangement creates a sense of genuine connection. The emotionality of it is given a larger scope with string quartet added to “Someday” to render it chamber, whereas the wah-wah-washed “I’ll Never Take You Back” offers a groove exploration of a lighter kind that doesn’t fall far from what Kulick has been doing with GRAND FUNK since the start of this millennium.
The rhythm section dives in to shake the bottom-end in the soulful “You’ve Got A Hold On Me,” but if “Trying To Find A Way” feels even rawer in its Hendrix-defined gloom,”You Won’t Be There” gets its point across with a proto-metal intensity. Still, it’s the funky “My Baby” that runs the entire progressive gamut for the band who could have been big hadn’t they stopped, and they sure had to get back – it was worth it.
****1/4
