SACD Montrose – Montrose

Montrose as a hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions’ Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary Series, mastered to DSD by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. All eight tracks play in one sequence – from “Rock The Nation” to “Make It Last”.

Four musicians, no detours

A guitar can play a riff – or it can sound like an engine turning over and set the whole band in motion before the song has properly begun. “Bad Motor Scooter” is one of those moments when Ronnie Montrose does more than accompany a song: he invents its entrance. The debut thrives on clear ideas like that – direct riffs and a band that knows exactly where to put its energy.

In 1973 that band was Ronnie Montrose on guitar, Sammy Hagar on vocals, Bill Church on bass and Denny Carmassi on drums. Eight tracks are all it takes to define their roles: Hagar gets room for his voice, the guitar stays immediate, and bass and drums deliver far more than weight. In a line-up this lean, every small rhythmic decision counts.

Experience behind a debut

Ronnie Montrose didn’t start from zero: he had already worked with Van Morrison and Edgar Winter before leading a band under his own name. Here studio experience meets the hunger of a new group – a productive combination. Don’t mistake the album’s directness for a lack of know-how about making recordings.

Ted Templeman produced and Donn Landee engineered – and both names turn up again on Van Halen’s debut. So the connection is more concrete than a vague resemblance between two American hard-rock albums: there is a real line of people to follow, and much later Sammy Hagar himself became part of the Van Halen story. According to the publisher, Eddie Van Halen cited Montrose as a blueprint for what came next.

“Rock Candy” starts with the drums

Listen only to the guitars and you miss half the fun. “Rock Candy” is credited to all four members, and its drum opening puts the foundation ahead of the voice. Follow Carmassi’s accents and the bass as parts in their own right – the riff doesn’t hit on its own; the band gives it a body.

“Good Rockin’ Tonight” adds a link to Roy Brown and an older rhythm-and-blues tradition. Among the originals stands a song that openly shows where this music comes from: hard rock isn’t invented outside history here, but charged from an existing vocabulary of rhythm, punch and movement. “Rock The Nation”, “Space Station #5” and “Make It Last” each attack from a different angle without breaking the album’s focus.

The hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions

CAPR 019 SA is a hybrid stereo SACD from Analogue Productions’ Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary Series. According to the publisher, Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab mastered it to DSD from the original master tape. The SACD layer plays on SACD-capable players, the CD layer on any conventional CD player. The disc contains the eight tracks of the original album.

You order from Michael 45 in Germany. We arrange the US import and ship from Hilden.

More from the series: Acoustic Sounds 40th Anniversary Series

Also in another edition: Montrose

Customer question: Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Musicians

Personnel checked against album sources.

• Sammy HagarVocals
• Ronnie MontroseGuitar
• Bill ChurchBass
• Denny CarmassiDrums