Dennis Hopper Choppers - Be Ready

Dennis Hopper Choppers

Be Ready

Released: July 04 2011

Genre: Folk Rock / Psychedelic

Label: D.Wink

Rating: 4.0/5

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By Diether Scholten 

Last June Ben Nicholls’ one-man-band evolved into a multiple-guest-star orchestra-like ensemble – Dennis Hopper Choppers. With a two-day recording marathon in a south-London based studio Be Ready took shape.

Be Ready spawned in the area where movies like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly were shot. This movie-stage sure has left it’s fingerprint on this new album, as every song manages to creates some kind of story-telling atmosphere which will prove to be a bit of a challenge for the director of the music clips, if there even will be…

The opening song, Good To Me, could be used in a spaghetti western which is due to a shrill trumpet that Ennio Moricone could have thought up himself. Ben Nicholls’ deep and rich voice throughout the introduction takes you on a cinematic trip.

Climaxes in this roller-coaster record are the over-melodic All That I Once Thought, and the semi-aggressive bass-line and chorus throughout My Destiny.  Nicholls really shows the power of his voice in going from a deep and slow, repeating ballad to an incredible build up in Number 1, leading through its climax in a jazzy saxophone-solo.

In between these climaxes great mood-setters can be found. Some tracks seem to capture the tunes of certain areas, Persia for example, as displayed in Good To Me. And after a long ride on a chopper, with All Could Come True and Long Trip Home some slightly tempered Russian folk can be heard in Moscow Nights. Further down the road Razor Gang sounds like a gang of choppers rampaging over a busy highway. Approaching the end of the album, Heart To Dry has “walking lonely in the Spanish desert” written all over it.

The final track, Come To My Party feels like one grim package of all previous songs; offering a great build up that leads to a final closure.

Whether in the mood for some folk rock or not, the tracks on this album succeed in creating atmosphere – and with just a 2-day recording session this is a job well done.

Dennis Hopper Choppers – Good To Me