Deep Purple, the name is synonymous with the birth of heavy Rock music dating back to the late 1960s. Over the course of five decades, Deep Purple smoked the waters of Rock-and-Roll music with an undeniable fixation on mixing all the joys of Rock with the magical complexities of Prog Rock.
In an ever changing music business, Deep Purple never compromised for anyone as music evolved drastically in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and beyond. Nearly two dozen albums later, Deep Purple are thrilled for the release of their twenty-first LP, Whoosh!, which is slated to drop on Friday, August 7, 2020 via earMUSIC.
While some Rock fans may not even realize Deep Purple is still making new music, dedicated fans who have followed the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Famers for years will be familiar with everything up until Whoosh!. In just the past twenty years, Deep Purple have released four successful albums with 2003’s Bananas, 2005’s Rapture of the Deep, 2013’s Now What?!, and 2017’s Infinite. This merely scratches the surface on the abundance of music Deep Purple have created in their storied tenure.
With Whoosh!, Deep Purple adopted the motto “Deep Purple is putting the Deep back in Purple.” To help accomplish this, the immensely talented, long time line up of Ian Gillan on Vocals, Steve Morse on Guitar, Roger Glover on Bass, Ian Paice on Drums, and Don Airey on Keyboard hired famed Producer Bob Ezrin (Kansas, Alice Cooper, KISS, Pink Floyd) to bring it all together.
Chock full of music, Whoosh! begins with almost a Jazz/Blues fusion, very live feeling tune called “Throw My Bones.” For the track “We’re All The Same In The Dark,” the music carries some of that old time Deep Purple guitar plus keyboard tone and then “Nothing At All” has a bright breakdown. A couple of songs later, “Step By Step” has a creeping styled groove before “What The What” unexpectedly comes in as a 1950s style Rock-n-Roll tune.
Thereafter, “The Long Way Round” delivers a very cosmic keyboard solo while “The Power Of The Moon” embodies a dark vibe and a catchy hook which sounds like it could be in a Horror flick. For the silent types, Whoosh! also has two instrumentals, “Remission Possible” and the funky “And The Address.” Later on, “Man Alive” has a breakdown and guitar solo that flies high and “Dancing In My Sleep” keeps the energy of Whoosh! going right until the end.
Definitely an album which proves how Progressive Deep Purple can be, Whoosh! is certainly one of the more diverse sounding Deep Purple collections. At the core, Whoosh! is very eclectic in the way it combines the right balance between a classic heavy Rock sound and Progressive Rock. As a stand out, Gillan’s voice is very distinctive and Whoosh! will strike a chord with fans of Deep Purple’s more recent works. Needless to say, Deep Purple are here to stay and Whoosh! is the next chapter for these pioneers of Rock music. For these reasons, Cryptic Rock gives Whoosh! 3 out of 5 stars.
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