Dillinger - Dillinger 1974

Dillinger (not to be confused with the reggae band of the same name) was a Canadian progressive band from Toronto, Ontario. The band's debut self-titled album was originally released on the Daffodil Records label in 1974. The album contains three original songs composed by the band and a superb cover of the song "Nature's Way," originally done by Spirit on The 12 Dreams of Dr Sardonicus album. Dillinger's music is a complex, guitar-and-organ fronted progressive sound that moves from jazz to blues and features a variety of instruments including piano, synthesizers, flute, sax, acoustic and electric guitars bass, and percussion. In places, the band sounds like Santana, while in other places like Iron Butterfly or Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Dillinger has a unique sound for a Canadian band that attracted more attention in Europe than it did in North America. With long songs and drawn-out solos, Dillinger is more or less one of your typical early-'70s progressive bands, nothing special, but nonetheless interesting and typical of the genre. This release by Unidisc is a straight reissue of the original album at a budget price and contains no bonus tracks. AMG.

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Dillinger - Bionic Dread 1976

Although recorded during the same Channel One sessions as its predecessor, CB 200, Dillinger's second international long-player, Bionic Dread, is comparatively uneven. Once again the Revolutionaries -- Channel One's house band -- supply the "rockers" approach. Much in the same way that Western culture would be influenced by the social and political aspects of rap music, at the heart of Dillinger's clever rhymes is the toaster's ability and finesse when combining hip or otherwise "underground" street lingo and cultural references into his talkin' verse. Bionic Dread failed to produce a breakout track on par with what "Cokane in My Brain" had contributed to the CB 200 album. Still, there are several significant updates and reworkings of melodic motifs liberally borrowed from the magnificent Mighty Diamonds -- a trio of roots reggae vocalists whose "Why Me Black Brother Why" is converted into "Combination Two" and whose "Poor Marcus" was the obvious inspiration for the paean to Ethiopian King "Selassie I." [In 2004, both Bionic Dread and CB 200 were officially released on a limited-edition single-CD compilation from Hip-O Select, with newly remastered audio courtesy of Grammy-winning engineer Gavin Lurssen.] AMG.

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