COZY POWELL – Octopuss [Korean Edition remastered]

It has been requested classic COZY POWELL albums in the best sound quality possible. “Octopuss“, the third Cozy solo album has been reissued in Japan remastered an pressed on SHM-CD. But we’re more than happy with this [rare] Korean pressing which uses the same master (which sounds huge) and has an excellent disc manufacturing too.
Again with likes of Gary Moore, Mel Galley, Don Airey and for the first time legendary Jon Lord, “Octopuss” is a new tour-de-force for Powell & Co.
Perhaps not his best album in terms of songwriting, but in our opinion, “Octopuss” is where Powell’s drumming skills is better captured into to. Just listen to ‘The Rattler’ (co-written with David Coverdale). Killer.

By the time of the release of “Octopuss” (1983) the progressive rock genre had evolved further through the Eighties with a more polished, accessible sound, and Powell wades out confidently into the genre’s fast flowing waters with ‘Princetown’ and the title track ‘Octopuss’.
These sit comfortably with songs like ‘Formula One’, where Powell’s thunder and Galley’s axe heroics pair up to speed through musical chicanes and negotiate rhythmic hairpins with skill and power.

Powell’s lively performance spun around big budget, showpiece instrumentals like movie themes ‘633 Squadron’ and ‘The Big Country’. These are both here in all their rousing, widescreen glory. Gary Moore again contributes co-writing & lead guitar to one of the album’s better tracks, ‘Dartmoore’ (sic).
An oblique reference to Powell’s and Coverdale’s male bonding camping trip, in an attempt by the singer to woo Powell into Whitesnake’s ranks (it worked). The slick, punchy bluesy rock of ‘The Rattler’ is a marvelously apposite closer on the album that is among Powell’s finest hour.
Highly Recommended

01 – Up On The Downs
02 – 633 Squadron
03 – Octopuss
04 – The Big Country
05 – Formula One
06 – Princetown
07 – Dartmoore
08 – The Rattler

Cozy Powell – drums, percussion
Colin Hodgkinson – bass guitar
Mel Galley – guitar
Gary Moore – guitar on “Dartmoore”
Jon Lord – keyboards, organ
Don Airey – keyboards, synths

Out of print