Drummer Corky Laing, the last surviving member of 70s behemoths Mountain, is still playing, still recording, with a big network of musicians and contacts built up over 50 years.
So after 2019’s The Toledo Sessions, when he got hemmed in by the pandemic, he escaped to Finland where he could continue to record. Laing’s drumming – hard but not heavy – was a distinctive element in Mountain’s pioneering hard-rock style which has never really gone out of fashion, particularly among guitarists.
Which is why he can lay down a solid bedrock for an array of hard-rock permutations that the musicians (who here include guitarist Conny Bloom of Sweden’s Electric Boys – as well as Michael Monroe and Ian Hunter) clearly get a kick out of playing.
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Laing’s songs are not strong on melody, though, so it’s strange that the best of them, Whatcha Doin’?, is positioned at the end of the album when it should be the opening track.
