Short Reviews [Euphoria Station - 2025 - "Smoking Gun"]

I was a big fan of the second album by Euphoria Station, a band mixing together Americana with country and progressive rock, and although it has taken six years they are finally back with their third, and what a beauty it is too. Singer Saskia Binder, and guitarist/songwriter Hoyt Binder have taken a somewhat more direct approach this time with Southern Rock being high in the mix and even includes a cover of The Marshall Tucker Band's "Take the Highway" right at the beginning of the album, laying their wares out on the table for all to hear. We get a more stripped-down, improvisational approach courtesy of newcomers Toss Panos (Robben Ford) on drums and Jorgen Carlsson (Gov't Mule) on bass while joining them are Euphoria Station alumni Ronald van Deurzen (keyboards), Rebecca Kleinmann (flute) and Tollak Ollestad (harmonica), all of which comes together to create music which is evocative, timeless, and quite unlike anything else I am coming across. This is not music from 2025 but feels rooted in the Seventies with some Eighties polish, all together to create something which feels honest and rooted in both country and rock with the flute providing a very Native American sound which brings in World elements and makes us wonder just what we are listening to. Saskia was a wonderfully clear vocal style, and the murder ballad style does remind me a lot of South For Winter, yet this has much more of a rock approach and less folk. The blurring of musical boundaries is simply wonderful, warming and hearty, the result being that anyone who enjoys any of the genres they blend together will surely find this very precious indeed. It took me two years to hear their debut, and then only because it was sent to me by a friend from Norway, but this time I was on the band's radar and came across it rather more quickly and I am so pleased I did as this is one of those albums which just feels right the very first time it is played and it just keeps getting better there on.

Progtector: September 2025

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Euphoria Station