Album Notes

Chris “Klondike” Masuak’s musical history reads like a muscle car ride through the mean streets of Australia’s rock and roll underground.

The Canadian-born prodigy achieved teenage notoriety as a guitarist for legendary Radio Birdman and then waged a War Against The Jive with the country’s hardest working rock and roll band, The Hitmen. Next came a stint with the original live line-up of THE NEW CHRISTS, followed by international prominence with the Ryko Records-signed Screaming Tribesmen.

Klondike’s dabbled in country rock with Chris Boy King and the Kamloops Swing and then swung down Texas blues and surf paths with The Juke Savages and The Raouls, respectively.

Ongoing commitments with Radio Birdman, a soon-to-be-reanimated Hitmen and the eclectic Mark Sisto's Detroit Actual constantly beckon. He was recently inducted, with Birdman, into the Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

But it’s his own Klondike's North 40 that’s currently center stage with the release of the debut album “The Straight Path” on new label I-94 Bar Records.

It’s a bracing dose of unfashionably loud guitar rock and roll. Tough tones and terrific tunes, - the sort of stuff you used to hear over crackly AM radio sets in the ‘70s.

Straight from the heart, with enough hi-octane, soul fever on board to power a big-finned cruiser on the high road to Heaven, this is as impressive as anything Klondike’s committed to tape. Running the gamut from blues-rock blasts (Cream, anyone?) to an Eastern raga (turned up to 11) with that distinctive, choppy rhythm and blazing, lyrical lead guitar sprayed all over it.

It’s likely to recall echoes of any and all of Klondike’s impressive antecedents, while still charting its own Straight Path.

This is no one-man band, however, with Klondike leaning on veterans of impeccable pedigree to realise his finely-honed vision.

At the core, there’s the melifilous bass tones of Red Porter (Juke Savages) all over the thick bottom end, with Gerard Presland (Hitmen DTK, Vanilla Chainsaws, Juke Savages) laying down impeccable feels and powerhouse fills on the traps. They’re supplemented by Gye Bennetts (Hitmen DTK) on drums.

Self-styled blues wailer Matt Sulman heads a rotating, all-star crew of vocalists with John Rooney (Orange Humble Band, The Lonelyhearts), Scott Morgan (Sonic's Rendezvous Band, The Rationals, The Hydromatics, Powertrane, The Solution) and Angie Pepper (The Passengers, Angie Pepper Band.)

Produced by Chris "Klondike" Masuak. Initial recording produced by Rob Younger and engineered by Phil Punch at Electric Avenue, Sydney. Vocal tracks and additional recording engineered by Greg Clarke at The Cave and in Ben's Den. Mastered by Ernie O.