Air Raid is the perfect marriage of a Led Zeppelin style rhythm section to the song crafting influences of Gary Brooker and Paul Kantner. It was elegantly produced by Eddie Kramer with all the grandeur of a live Procal Harum. A classic in every way.

10 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Classic Rock, ROCK: Progressive Rock



Details:
Air Raid was an Atlanta based rock-n-roll quartet (1973-1981) that successfuly bridged the classic British three piece rhythm section (ala Led Zeppelin, Free, Cream) to the song writng sensibilities of Gary Brooker's work with the great Procol Harum.
Other influences that certainly play into the overall sound of Air Raid would be Jefferson Airplane's Jack Casady and the lyrics and epic song craft of songwriter and rock visionary Paul Kantner.
Arthur Offen is handling all of the song writing here as well as lead vocals, Grand piano and other keyboards. The world class guitar work on these tracks is Rick Hinkle,a well respected Atlanta player and producer. On bass is Tom Walker adding the monster low-end groove and on drums is legendary Atlanta drummer Rick Brown, probably the hardest hitter of the day in the Atlanta area.
This album was produced in the summer of 1980 by recording legend Eddie Kramer who is known to all in the recording industry for his work with Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Kiss. Eddie brings many highly original and imaginative sonic touches to this collection of songs. His recording methods at the time allowed the listener into Kramer's enormous sound paintings that were at once giant yet full of rock-n-roll punch. Listening to his extraordinary intro for "Longships" you can close your eyes and find yourself at land's end aboard a Viking ship at sea thanks to the remarkable sound collage by the band and Kramer. That's just one of the many sonic treats to be found here.
Kramer was also intent on adding some pop smarts to the proceedings as FM radio hits ruled the airwaves in the late seventies and early eighties. Workouts like "Nowhere Without Your Love", "Love The Way You Look To-nite" and "Anything Anytime" fill that gap as does the ravenous funk of "Love Wave". The signature tunes here such as "You're Mine", "Mystery Man", Ballad of Anymore", "Longships" and most importantly "Soldiers of Fortune" project a more formal and typically British flavor as all of the band's major influences come into play. The wild card of the set is definitely "Air Raid/ Drill" full of sci-fi mayhem as well as being a suitable album closer.
This album was completely re-mastered from original masters and other sources and fully restored with it's original album art work in the summer of 2005 by Tom Waltz assisted by Arthur Offen at Waltz Audio in Boston MA.
For the complete Air Raid story, more info and photos of the the band in action back the day as well as the place to find all of the music by Arthur Offen please visit: www.arthuroffen.com