Nick Johnston – ‘Remarkably Human’ [Review]

Nick Johnston Remarkably Human Gavin Harrison Bryan Beller Porcupine Tree The Aristocrats King Crimson Guthrie Govan Marco Minnemann Paul Gilbert Interview Guitar Guitarist Vocalist Vocals Drummer Drums Bass Bassist Feature New Album 2016 EP Single Review CD Concert Gig Tickets Tour Download Stream Live Torrent Music Musician Record Label News Update Facebook YouTube Twitter VEVO Spotify iTunes Apple Music Band Logo Cover Art

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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…

Posted on 04 August 2016

Steve Vai – ‘Modern Primitive / Passion And Warfare’ [Review]

Steve Vai Modern Primitive Passion And Warfare Review Interview Guitar Guitarist Vocalist Vocals Drummer Drums Bass Bassist Feature Album Review CD Concert Gig Tickets Tour Download Stream Live Torrent Music Musician Record Label News Update Facebook YouTube Twitter VEVO Spotify iTunes Apple Music Band 2016 2015

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Ask any instrumental guitarist who their key influences are, and you can safely bet that Steve Vai’s name will appear somewhere on that list. A former Joe Satriani student, Frank Zappa stunt guitarist, and alumnus of David Lee Roth’s post-Van Halen solo band as well as Alcatrazz and Whitesnake, Steve Vai’s style merges the virtuosic gymnastics, freaky weirdness, and rock star flamboyance required to survive and thrive during his enviable first-hand musical education. Since the 1980s, Vai has climbed every peak the rock world set before him – a fact that’s earned him the respect of peers and fans alike.

Modern Primitive is a career retrospective, Vai-style. Steve Vai is not known for thinking inside the box or doing anything half-assed, preferring instead to constantly immerse himself in a hands-on approach to every detail of every song, album, and show. The results are consistently one of a kind, and Modern Primitive is no different in that regard Read more…

Posted on 24 June 2016

Yossi Sassi – ‘Roots And Roads’ [Review]

Yossi Sassi Roots And Roads Desert Butterflies 2016 2015 2014 Album Review CD Interview Stream Link Download Torrent

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Innovative instrumental guitarists are a rare breed. Most still stick to recycling Satriani licks over stock-issue backing tracks. The standard has been set and met many times, but rarely exceeded.

Yossi Sassi is a notable exception. This guy has mastered many stringed instruments, the electric guitar being just one – and he’s even masterminded the creation of an entirely new instrument, the bouzoukitara – half guitar, half bouzouki. In short, Yossi Sassi is pretty much a one-man orchestra.

Fans of Jimmy Page’s ‘Guitar Army’ approach to composition and arrangement will instantly Read more…

Posted on 23 May 2016

Warning – Guitargasm Ahead: The Aristocrats Join Joe Satriani & Steve Vai For G3 2016!

G3 2016: The Aristocrats Joe Satriani Steve Vai

Guitar fans: start your salivating!

Last year, Joe Satriani’s Shockwave Supernova was named TMMP’s Top Album Of 2015, alongside Jon Gomm’s Live In The Acoustic Asylum. Also present on that list were The Aristocrats (with Tres Caballeros and Culture Clash Live), and the inimitable Steve Vai (with Stillness In Motion: Vai Live In L.A.).

This means that G3 2016, set to kick off in Italy on July 2, will Read more…

Posted on 24 February 2016

Danimal Cannon [Interview]

Danimal Cannon (Interview)

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Doing something different is difficult.

In a world obsessed with trends and fads that last a microsecond, the pressure is always on to deliver something palatable to a mass audience with the attention span of a brain-damaged goldfish. With his new album Lunaria, Danimal Cannon is ignoring the seductive pull of the same-but-slightly-different, and delivering something really different.

Danimal Cannon is a chiptune master, capable of blending multiple genres, timbres, instruments, and moods into a long-player that is an acquired taste, but a legitimately rewarding taste nonetheless. After I listened to Lunaria in its entirety and reviewed it here, this interview could only kick off with one question…

Your new album Lunaria broke my brain, in a good way! So my opening question has to be: Just how the hell did you make it? How did the tracks on Lunaria go from idea to reality? Read more…

Posted on 24 February 2016

Danimal Cannon – ‘Lunaria’ [Review]

Danimal Cannon - Lunaria Review

And now for something completely different.

Completely different.

Danimal Cannon’s Lunaria is a mostly instrumental industrial-prog album, composed on a 1989 Nintendo Game Boy and loosely based around a conceptual story inspired by the Giant Impact Hypothesis.

Whether you’re new to the chiptune world or a die-hard veteran, you’re unlikely to have heard something this relentlessly left of centre before.

Acclimatising to Lunaria’s claustrophobic, digitised-to-the-nth-degree universe is challenging, to say the least. But once you get past the initial sense of sonic culture shock, its true nature as Read more…

Posted on 16 February 2016

Sithu Aye – ‘Senpai EP’ [Review]

Sithu Aye - Senpai EP

Since I travelled to Paris to see THE END, an opera starring Japanese virtual pop idol Hatsune Miku, Japanese-culture-related music has been thin on the ground here at TMMP. Enter Sithu Aye and an EP that began as a joke, but wound up becoming seriously awesome.

Senpai (in English, someone who will never notice you) is one of the Read more…

Posted on 18 January 2016

Dan Sugarman – ‘Centersun’ [Review]

Dan Sugarman - Centersun

2016 seems set to be an eventful year for lovers of instrumental guitarists. Dan Sugarman (six-string slinger for uncompromising metal band As Blood Runs Black) is the latest to step up and speak his mind without words – and on Centersun, he has a lot to say.

The story behind Centersun is best told in Dan’s own words:

“This album is a bit of a departure from my typical writing process, in the sense that all 6 songs were improvised on the fly in a 7 day period. The reason? I had just come home from a 1.5 month long headlining tour with As Blood Runs Black with the plan of coming home to start writing and recording my album, when I received the news the day I got home that my mother’s brain tumor had returned. I was absolutely devastated…so I took a day to myself to kind of figure out my next move, and then I locked myself in the studio for a week straight. Read more…

Posted on 14 January 2016

Sean Ashe [Interview]

The guitar world is well known for its over-the-top machismo and cutthroat competitive obsessions. The upside of that dark side is that it makes artists like Sean Ashe stand out that much more. Warm, vibrant, and invigorating, Sean Ashe’s new album Flux (reviewed on TMMP here) heralds the triumphant arrival of a great new voice on the guitar scene.

In this interview, Sean Ashe and TMMP talk Flux, creativity, evolution, and more…

Your debut album Flux is due out this month. How’re you feeling now the release date’s so close?

While a typical response, I’m so excited. This is my first album, and I’m making sure I take it all in. I only get one first album! Everyone who’s heard it has said so many positive things. It’s left me feeling so excited for the future, and incredibly inspired to make more music.

How would you describe the process of writing and recording Flux?

The process of writing this album was really tough. Not Read more…

Posted on 09 January 2016

Sean Ashe – ‘Flux’ [Review]

Sean Ashe - Flux

If you love getting lost in oceans of warm, seductive notes, Flux should be top of your 2016 wish list. Sean Ashe is a sublime guitarist, and with this collection of gorgeous instrumental tunes, he hits the sweetest of sweet spots.

A sense of pure, unadulterated joy permeates opener Imagine (deep-pocketed grooves, sensual tones, a graceful piano solo) and Memory Lane, the latter of which skips playfully from slinky licks to what sounds like Read more…

Posted on 03 January 2016

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