Diesel Park West: Blood & Grace
(Danville) Import

August 2007

Britain’s Diesel Park West are one of those bands that have been around for the better part of twenty years, but save a debut album released Stateside, they’ve remained under the radar their entire career. As is often the case, DPW remain undeterred, putting out album after album of exceptional music filled with compelling hooks and instantly memorable melodies. Their latest, Blood & Grace, is no exception, a set of songs that provide an immediate connection even on first hearing. “Just Like Me” and “There’s a Grace” each provide a perfect case in point, their rocking refrains making an indelible impression. This is, after all, a band that’s never refrained from expressing admiration for their forebears; early singles and EPs were littered with covers of classic forebears like Buffalo Springfield and Moby Grape and their original material conveys a sense of classic connection. Sadly, Blood & Grace isn’t uncovered as easily, but the end result is well worth the effort.

Lee Zimmerman - Entertainment News And Views, Miami

DIESEL PARK WEST
Blood And Grace (Danville cd)

     I always had a bit of a soft spot for Diesel Park West in the 1980s, as a bunch of Leicester lads with a healthy fixation for Moby Grape/Love/Byrds/Buffalo Springfield and West Coast guitar bands in general. There was a timewhen their record label was clearly hoping they might actually achieve widespread commercial success, but it wasn't to be. This might be why they seemed to be trying a bit too hard on their later albums. Now on their own label, they don't have anything to prove and they sound a lot better for it. Several of my friends feel that the band were sometimes overproduced, and that the vocals could be a little too melodramatic. Happily the first two songs are the opposite, and rank among their best tunes. 'If They Ever Turn The Lights On' is relaxed and assured, with some typically great guitar fills from Rick Wilson. 'Men Of Blood' and 'There's A Grace' are really strong tunes with an almost folk-rock sound. Not all the songs are quite this good, however. Some songs tend to peak early. At 4 minutes 30 seconds 'The Indian' is long, and 'Just Like Me' is way too long at 6 minutes. I don't have a problem with long tunes, but these say all they need to during the first 3 minutes, and then repeat themselves.
     Lead singer John Butler is in good voice throughout, curbing an occasional tendency to hang on to a note too long. Diesel Park West deserve your attention because very few contemporary English bands play this type of music with the same passion.
www.dieselparkwest.com
Phil Suggitt

Shindig-magazine.com June 2007

Leicester’s finest show how it’s done (yes that does mean Kassabian)

After 20 years of toil you don’t really expect a band to open with such a stormer as ‘If They Ever Turn the Lights On’ - they sound like Paul K fronting a Paisley Underground band. What you do expect is by rote mind numbing boredom. So that’s one track where they can still cut it, what else can they do? ‘Men of Blood’ is all Byrdsian suppressed jangle, like the first burst of alt-country, the Long Ryders, hints of Green on Red, even the Rain Parade. A rich stew of influences, the kind that keeps them from becoming Jet, the urge to move on not recreate, the result is gut-pulling guitar breaks as on ‘The Indian’ not stolen ideas and riffs. It also propels them toward that ringing West Coast sound - ‘There’s a Grace’ drips the honey of a sweet 12 string, a golden sound, thousands of miles from an East Midlands city - not that you’d know from this. The harmonies more California than Coventry.

Not all of it is suffused with the breezy open harmonies, some of it retreats to the garage: ‘Personal Lives’ has some grit and grime on it whilst ‘Faithless’ almost reaches Roy Orbison territory with John Butler’s voice having just that right mix of world-weariness and optimism. Some bands take some time to mature; DPW have taken 20 years to reach this point of certainty and control. They’re not terribly original but they make heartfelt well-crafted music that rarely puts a foot wrong.

Date review added:  Monday, April 30, 2007
Reviewer:  David Cowling
  Americana-uk.com

    Taking their inspiration directly from Sixties bands like Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, Moby Grape and 
Love, Diesel Park West are immensely proud of their forebears. Maybe that’s because DPW make no 
attempt to imitate them. Instead, they plunge headfirst into the sun-baked Southern California 
psychedelia of these influences (even Moby Grape, though based in the Bay Area, had more in common 
with their Los Angeles cousins), and come out the better. The Englishmen pitch their guitars to create a 
special harmony, half-celestial and half-earthbound. For a group that made their first impression over 
twenty years ago, it's amazing how inspired they’ve remained, even when the American public has been 
in the dark about the band's moving attributes. (Their editorial review at amazon.com is about the 
wrong artist.) It's always easy to hear those genuinely sparked by a few musical giants. Singer-
songwriters John Butler and Rick Wilson are obvious true believers, and found a way from the U.K. to get 
inside the soul of artists like Roger McGuinn, Peter Lewis, Arthur Lee, Neil Young, Stephen Stills and 
later, Tom Petty. It's like a modern version of the Rolling Stones being birthed by their love of American 
bluesmen Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed, only 25 years later, and when the DPW take off on "Faithless 
Life," you’ll swear you've seen the future. Off road tip: "All Come to Meet Her" on More Oar, a tribute to 
Skip Spence's 1969 Oar opus. The group digs down deep and completely rings the bell on the song, 
with a vocal arrangement guaranteed to chill and an insight into Spence’s heart that can only be 
described as incandescent. There is a reason Diesel Park West continues, and 10 of the best ones are 
the moving originals on Blood & Grace. It's never too late to find out.    

..........................SONICBOOMERS.COM December, 2008