Turkish Delight – Volume One

Turkish Delight is always a go-to item for many sweet tooth connoisseurs. So here in 2022, we have the musical equivalent thereof.

Written by: gdmonline

ARTIST: Turkish Delight
ALBUM: Volume One
LABEL: Escape Music
SERIAL: ESM370
YEAR: 2022

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

LINEUP: See Below

TRACK LISTING: 01 Intro * 02 Live Again * 03 Crazy Days * 04 Bad Enough * 05 Never Will Forget * 06 Harder They Fall * 07 Get Out Of Here * 08 Believe * 09 Hangman Blues * 10 State Of Mind * 11 Belly Of The Beast * 12 Holy Water * 13 Sweet Serenity * 14 Take It Away * 15 Bad To Good

RATING:

WEBLINKS: Site Link

Background

The much loved confectionery item Turkish Delight is always a go-to item for many sweet tooth connoisseurs. So here in 2022, we have the musical equivalent thereof. The Escape Music project was the idea of label owner Khalil Turk, for which he has assembled the biggest list of melodic rock musicians seen in recent years. See the personnel list below, featured on every track. The styles do change throughout, so it’s not all pure AOR as white as snow or pink as himalayan salt, or.. turkish delight.

The Songs

Zooming right on past the brief instrumental, played by Vince DiCola called ‘Introduction’ we get to the first proper track ‘Live Again’, which starts out like a Lionville track and kicks on from there. It’s sung by Ronnie Platt (Kansas). ‘Crazy Days’ sounds like an action packed number, with Jerome Mazza and Vince DiCola dominating. It’s eerily good to hear Mazza sounding so much like the great Steve Walsh.

‘Bad Enough’ features some heavier riffing from Joel Hoekstra, vocals handled by Kansas/Seventh Key member Billy Greer. Seven lead singer Mick Devine handles ‘Never Will Forget’, a sombre number with a slight bluesy tinge. ‘Harder They Fall’ features Jeff Scott Soto, a tougher sounding track with Alessandro Del Vecchio’s organ work also prominent.

Nice to hear Terry Brock upfront on ‘Get Out Of Here’ though the song itself was a bit meh.. ‘Believe’ features the most interesting lineup of those assembled here, including Mike Slamer, Jeff Pilson, Fredrik Bergh and Robin McAuley. The contributions made this an album highlight for me. ‘Hangman Blues’ was sorta OK but kinda flew right past me too. ‘State Of Mind’ was much better, another interesting session lineup including Mark Stanway and Gene Black while Jerome Mazza really is a top notch vocalist.

‘Belly Of The Beast’ is the slow burner, here we see Chris Ousey, and Mark Mangold on the session where the latter plays more of a support role rather than lead. ‘Holy Water’ is a decent tune, the duo of Ronnie Romero (who sounds really good here) and Mike Slamer makes for a productive tandem. Maybe we could see something develop between those two in future?

The combination of James Christian and Nikolo Kotsev for ‘Sweet Serenity’ was a productive association too. Kotsev has been out of the limelight for awhile, glad to hear he’s still out there. Tony Harnell is always a welcome addition on ‘Take It Away’, a track featuring Tommy Denander on guitars and keys.

In Summary

As with a project like Turkish Delight, some things worked, but to balance it out, a few things didn’t work. There were two things that were a takeaway for me. Firstly, there was no real flow across the album, as the identity was always chopping and changing. Secondly, I didn’t hear an out-and-out killer track on board. Good yes for the majority, but stellar? No.

There were a couple of highlights, ‘Crazy Days’, ‘Believe’, ‘State Of Mind’ and ‘Holy Water’, but four tracks out of fourteen is not a good return as I heard it. With 2022 coming to a close, there is so much more to listen to and I’ve also got a backlog of stuff from earlier in the year that I need to write up. So as far as Turkish Delight is concerned, it may end up further down the pecking-order I’m afraid.

Video

Harder They Fall (Jeff Scott Soto)

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Personnel:
1 Intro
Keyboards, Arranged By – Vince DiCola
1:49

2 Live Again
Backing Vocals – Chris Ousey
Bass – Rocky Newton
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Stevie D
Guitar, Keyboards, Written-By, Backing Vocals – Steve Newman
Keyboards – Steve Mann
Lead Vocals – Ronnie Platt
4:46

3 Crazy Days
Bass – Takeaki Itoh
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Joel Hoekstra
Keyboards – Vince DiCola
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Jerome Mazza
Written-By – Dean London, Tommy Denander
3:27

4 Bad Enough
Bass – Mat Sinner
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Joel Hoekstra
Keyboards – Eric Ragno
Lead Vocals – Billy Greer
Written-By, Keyboards – Steve Newman
4:45

5 Never Will Forget
Bass – Chris Childs
Drums – Josh Devine
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Written-By – Mick Devine
Slide Guitar – Jim Kirkpatrick
Written-By, Guitar, Keyboards – Steve Morris
3:42

6 Harder They Fall
Bass – Billy Sheehan
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Joel Hoekstra
Keyboards – Alessandro Del Vecchio
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Jeff Scott Soto
Written-By – Steve Overland
Written-By, Guitar – Tommy Denander
3:54

7 Get Out Of Here
Bass – Tracy Ferrie
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Gary Pihl
Lead Vocals – Terry Brock
Written-By, Backing Vocals – Mick Devine
Written-By, Keyboards – Steve Morris
3:57

8 Believe
Bass – Jeff Pilson
Drums – Josh Devine
Guitar – Mike Slamer
Lead Vocals, Backing Band – Robin McAuley
Written-By – Steve Overland
Written-By, Keyboards – Fredrik Bergh
5:29

9 Hangman Blues
Bass – Rocky Newton
Drums – Josh Devine
Lead Vocals – Joel Hoekstra
Lead Vocals, Written-By, Backing Vocals – Lee Small
Written-By, Guitar, Keyboards – Tommy Denander
3:20

10 State Of Mind
Bass – Ricky Phillips
Drums – Josh Devine
Keyboards – Mark Stanway
Lead Guitar – Gene Black
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Jerome Mazza
Written-By, Backing Vocals – Mick Devine
Written-By, Keyboards, Guitar – Tommy Denander
4:40

11 Belly Of The Beast
Bass – Chris Childs
Drum Programming – Josh Devine
Keyboards – Mark Mangold
Lead Vocals, Written-By, Backing Vocals – Chris Ousey
Written-By, Guitar – Steve Morris
5:24

12 Holy Water
Bass – Marco Mendoza
Drums – Josh Devine
Keyboards – Jimmy Nicholas
Lead Vocals, Backing Band – Ronnie Romero
Written-By, Backing Vocals – Lee Small
Written-By, Lead Guitar – Mike Slamer
5:13

13 Sweet Serenity
Backing Vocals – Robin Beck
Bass – Takeaki Itoh
Drums – Josh Devine
Keyboards – Fredrik Folkare
Lead Guitar – Nikolo Kotzev
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Written-By – James Christian (4)
Written-By, Keyboards – Mikael Rosengren
3:34

14 Take It Away
Bass – Marco Mendoza
Drums – Josh Devine
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Tony Harnell
Written-By – Michael Landau
Written-By, Backing Vocals – Steve Overland
Written-By, Guitar, Keyboards – Tommy Denander
3:35

15 Bad To Good
Bass – Brain J Anthony
Drums – Brian Tichy
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Written-By – Steve Overland
Written-By – Tommy Denander
Bass – Brain J Anthony
Drums – Brian Tichy
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Written-By – Steve Overland
Written-By – Tommy Denander
Bass – Marco Mendoza
Drums – Josh Devine
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Tony Harnell
Written-By – Michael Landau
Written-By, Backing Vocals – Steve Overland
Written-By, Guitar, Keyboards – Tommy Denander
3:35

15 Bad To Good
Bass – Brain J Anthony
Drums – Brian Tichy
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals, Written-By – Steve Overland
Written-By – Tommy Denander