High Gear (Howe II album)

Last updated
High Gear
Howe II - 1989 - High Gear.jpg
Studio album by
Howe II
Released1989 (1989)
Studio Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California
Genre Hard rock
Length42:02
Label Shrapnel
Producer Mike Varney, Steve Fontano, Greg Howe
Howe II chronology
High Gear
(1989)		 Now Hear This
(1991)

High Gear is the first studio album by the American hard rock band Howe II, released in 1989 through Shrapnel Records. Howe II was a short-lived group fronted by guitarist Greg Howe and his brother Albert Howe on vocals. [1]

Hard rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music that began in the mid-1960s, with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. It is typified by a heavy use of aggressive vocals, distorted electric guitars, bass guitar, drums, and often accompanied with keyboards.

Shrapnel Records record label

Shrapnel Records is a guitar-oriented record label started in 1980 by record producer Mike Varney.

Greg Howe American musician

Gregory Howe is an American guitarist and composer. An active musician for more than three decades, he has released nine studio albums in addition to collaborating with a wide variety of artists.

Contents

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal 7/10 [2]

Andy Hinds at AllMusic reviewed the album positively, saying that "The songs on High Gear are good, the riffs are killer, and the execution is flawless." He praised Greg Howe's guitar playing as "more effective than ever; focused like a laser, his brilliant solos drive home the point of the songs rather than being the point of the songs" and likened Albert Howe's vocals to David Lee Roth. More praise went to the band overall: "The entire band plays with an articulate, inspired precision and energy that is truly awesome." [1] Journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "a rhythmic good time metal party" and the production as "a bit blocky, but vital like Van Halen". [2]

AllMusic Online music database

AllMusic is an online music database. It catalogs more than 3 million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musical artists and bands. It launched in 1991, predating the World Wide Web. As of 2015, AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne.

Solo (music) musical piece or part of musical piece performed by a single musician

In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer, who may be performing completely alone or supported by an accompanying instrument such as a piano or organ, a continuo group, or the rest of a choir, orchestra, band, or other ensemble. Performing a solo is "to solo", and the performer is known as a soloist.

David Lee Roth American singer

David Lee Roth is an American rock vocalist, musician, songwriter, actor, author, and former radio personality best known as the lead singer of hard rock band Van Halen across two stints from 1974 to 1985 and again from 2006 onwards. He is also known as a successful solo artist, releasing numerous RIAA-certified Gold and Platinum albums. After more than two decades apart, Roth re-joined Van Halen in 2006 for a North American tour that became the highest grossing in the band's history and one of the highest grossing of that year. In 2012, Roth and Van Halen released the comeback album A Different Kind of Truth. In 2007, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen. Roth possesses a vocal range of five octaves and three notes.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Albert Howe and Greg Howe.

No.TitleLength
1."High Gear"4:41
2."Carry the Torch"4:01
3."Strat-O-Various"1:13
4."Disorderly Conduct"4:33
5."Thinking of You"5:02
6."Standing on Line"3:32
7."Ferocious"4:34
8."Don't Let the Sloe Gin (Order the Wine)"5:08
9."Party Favors"3:30
10."Social Fever"5:48
Total length:42:02

Personnel

Howe II

The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer either leads the vocal ensemble, or sets against the ensemble as the dominant sound. In vocal group performances, notably in soul and gospel music, and early rock and roll, the lead singer takes the main vocal part, with a chorus provided by other band members as backing vocalists.

Guitar Fretted string instrument

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

Backing vocalist singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists

Backing vocalists or backup singers are singers who provide vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. In some cases, a backing vocalist may sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are used in a broad range of popular music, traditional music and world music styles.

Guest musicians

Mike Varney is an American musician, record producer, music publisher and impresario. He is the founder of the Shrapnel Label Group, which includes Shrapnel Records, Tone Center Records and Blues Bureau International. He also has a 50% stake in Magna Carta Records, a New York-based label. Amazon.com currently lists over 790 albums as being released by record labels founded or owned by Mike Varney. He is often credited with being the individual most responsible for popularizing the mid-1980s shred guitar boom, and has continuously specialized in producing highly acclaimed musicians within the genres of instrumental rock, hard rock, jazz, jazz fusion, blues, blues-rock, progressive metal and speed metal.

Jason Eli Becker is an American musician, songwriter and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Shrapnel Records-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released the albums Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988. Cacophony broke up in 1989 and Becker began doing solo work, having released his first album Perpetual Burn in 1988, also through Shrapnel. He later joined David Lee Roth's band and recorded one album with him, A Little Ain't Enough.

Production

Recorded at Prairie Sun Recording Studios, Cotati, California

Audio engineer engineer who operates recording, mixing, sound reproduction equipment

An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "...technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer ... the nuts and bolts." It's a creative hobby and profession where musical instruments and technology are used to produce sound for film, radio, television, music, and video games. Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using a mixing console and a sound reinforcement system for music concerts, theatre, sports games and corporate events.

A mastering engineer is a person skilled in the practice of taking audio that has been previously mixed in either the analog or digital domain as mono, stereo, or multichannel formats and preparing it for use in distribution, whether by physical media such as a CD, vinyl record, or as some method of streaming audio.

Fantasy Studios Recording studio near San Francisco, United States

Fantasy Studios was a music recording studio in Berkeley, California, at the Zaentz Media Center, known for its recording of award-winning albums including Journey's Escape and Green Day's Dookie. Built as a private recording studio for artists on the Fantasy Records label in 1971, it was opened to the public in 1980 for recording, mixing and mastering. It was permanently closed on September 15, 2018.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Hinds, Andy. "Howe II: High Gear - Howe II, Greg Howe". AllMusic . RhythmOne. Retrieved October 27, 2019.
  2. 1 2 Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. p. 163. ISBN   978-1894959315.
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