HANG LOOSE - Radical Scavenger (1995)

Today we have here a real rarity requested by a reader.
Despite their Swiss origin, HANG LOOSE used to play a catchy Melodic Hard Rock strongly influenced by the Canadian sound of bands such as Honeymoon Suite or Von Groove.
Hang Loose released a bunch of albums between the nineties and 2005 before disappear without notice, all of them through a small label and only distributed in central Europe.

"Radical Scavenger" was the first full length CD by Hang Loose, and beyond the dodgy cover, we find some truly melodic tunes rich in harmonies.
The only hard rockin' tracks here are the effective "Come Alive", the groovy "See Me Burn" and the slightly naive "Summertime Shuffle", the rest of the material waters the pure Canadian Melodic Rock style from the late '80s.
The Aldo Nova-like "Two Pretenders" is one of my favorites, but also title track "Radical Scavengers" and the absolutely Honeymoon Suite feel on the melodic "Substitute", which surprisingly, is a cover of the South African million-selling all-girl rock band Clout.
Other cuts are more dynamic yet with the same melodious essence as the radio-friendly "Angel To Me" (very Von Groove), "Every Young Man's Dream" (Nazareth cover) and the bit generic "Music". The ballad of the disc is "You", in fact an intense power ballad in the Stone Soup way.
The group also delivers some acoustically filled songs in the midtempo melodic rocker "Have A Drink On Me" and "Shoreline", the former quite compelling especially during the chorus.

Very well produced by drummer Padu Ziswiler, "Radical Scavenger" is a pleasant listen plenty of good Canuck-like melodies not usually heard in bands from Switzerland. Strong musicianship and accent-free vocals as well.
Rare.


01 - Summertime Shuffle
02 - Two Pretenders
03 - Have A Drink On Me
04 - Radical Scavengers
05 - Come Alive
06 - You
07 - Music
08 - Don't Wanna Get Along
09 - Angel To Me
10 - See Me Burn
11 - Substitute
12 - Shoreline
13 - Every Young Man's Dream

Roger Z.: Vocals, Guitar
Opthmar Mexx Brugger: Guitars, Backing Vocals
Toni Stockli: Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Dany Kirchhoffer : Bass, Backing Vocals
Bert Padu Ziswiler : Drums, Backing Vocals



HANG LOOSE Radical Scavenger
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