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Dorje occupy an interesting space within the modern music business. Their popularity is not fuelled by massive corporate marketing budgets, committees of image consultants, or anything remotely mainstream or traditional. Instead, Dorje have collectively harnessed the power of YouTube to get their names out there.
This is the cutting edge of music in 2016 Read more…
Instrumental guitar fans: Lend me your eyes. You know Animals As Leaders? They’re pretty sick, right? Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes know their shit. It’s pretty undeniable.
Glad we agree on that. Now, you know Steve Vai? Pretty insulting question, I know. Sorry. The guy’s a universe-class legend. Again, that’s just a straight plain fact.
Now, imagine Animals As Leaders teaming up with Vai for an entire album, calling in occasional cameos from Allan Holdsworth and his and Vai’s extensive back catalogue of virtuosic collaborators. Excited, moist, tumescent – the simple thought of that dream becoming a reality is guaranteed to make you at least one of those things. Good news ahead… Read more…
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When your band’s been going for well over three decades, keeping things consistently fresh is a tough ask. Mike Muir and Suicidal Tendencies have nonetheless managed it, mostly through a long line of lineup changes and the assimilation of a wide range of genres, from punk to funk to prog, into one singular STyle.
That said, the latest Suicidal Tendencies lineup is literally something else, a thrash fan’s wet dream come true. Suicidal Tendencies Version Fuck Knows By Now comes complete not only with brand new bassist Ra Diaz and guitar mangler Jeff Pogan, but also Dave Lombardo – the skin-beating ex-Slayer legend who barely needs any further introduction.
Time for some serious thrash Read more…
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The music world traditionally leans to the political left – and as far as those on the left are concerned, the world is presently going to hell in a driverless handcart. I’m inclined to agree with them – and so, on the evidence of new album FEAR, are Marillion.
FEAR (in this case an acronym for Fuck Everyone And Run) is a non-violent protest album. Sonically, it’s lush, vibrant, and often serene. Lyrically, however, Marillion wordsmith Steve Hogarth addresses some conceptually heavy themes with the flair of a veteran poet Read more…
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Although it’s 2016, not 1016, women in music remain a complicated subject. For some, anyway. Things are changing – slowly – and here, I’m going to talk about the third album from a band doing more than most to keep those changes coming.
The Pretty Reckless are currently sitting on their fourth rock-radio-topping single in Take Me Down, the first cut from Who You Selling For to see the light of day. Fronted as they are by the undeniably badass Taylor Momsen, that makes The Pretty Reckless notable as the first female-fronted rock act to embark on such a streak since The Pretenders.
In 1984. Read more…
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Let’s get that word out of the way.
Supergroup.
Ten letters more than capable of sparking instant controversy. For some, it’s a stigma, a mark of deep shame associated irreversibly with giant egos battling each other for the sole purpose of selling out and cashing in Read more…
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A camel is a horse designed by committee.
This single sentence encapsulates the core of my perspective on music. I love hearing one person give birth to an entire creative project, aided ideally by others who have as little input as is necessary to get the job done. Creative control freaks hold the key to my heart, whether they be virtuoso guitarist-composers such as Steve Vai, or erudite musical polymaths like Devin Townsend.
Plus, if you Google that same sentence, this image comes up:
If my perspective is always right and never wrong Read more…
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Brace yourself.
Until today, I was always that guy. The Dillinger Escape Plan fan who said, in the face of the still-epic Option Paralysis and One Of Us Is The Killer, “…yeah, they’re sick, but Ire Works is still easily their best album.”
I am no longer that guy.
What happened to me? Read more…
Normally, nothing makes a potential listener’s ears glaze over faster than the words “bonus material”. A collection of letters that instantly bring to mind haphazard collections of half-hearted acoustic songs, iffy remixes, and just plain shitty live recordings. Bonus material is for superfans only; it’s a long-established fact.
Normally, anyway Read more…
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Is less more?
It’s a question as old as time itself. Modern guitar music tends to reflect the more-is-more mentality. Today’s axe-slingers generally aim for more technique, for more notes in less space, to add more gymnastic tricks to their arsenals.
Sometimes, more really is more; see the likes of Steve Vai and Levin Minnemann Rudess for proof. Most of the time, though, it isn’t. Do a few guitar solo searches on YouTube, and it won’t be long before you get sick to death of the sound of a million wankers wanking, saying literally fuck all Read more…