Jon Gomm – ‘Live In The Acoustic Asylum’ [Review]

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Understatement of the day: Jon Gomm’s CV is quite impressive. The guy sells out gigs across the world, has performed on every continent on Earth, is welcomed at classical, folk, and metal festivals alike, and has won over fans as diverse as Stephen Fry and Tommy Lee. Behind his viral hit Passionflower – a solo guitar-and-vocal tour de force with a view count well into eight digits – lies a sizeable collection of songs guaranteed to both boggle the mind and brand themselves on your memory.

Live In The Acoustic Asylum is a collection of specially-recorded fan favourites. Passionflower is notable in its absence, but this collection doesn’t suffer for that fact in the least. Twelve-year-old instrumental Stupid Blues kicks things off with rugged pulsations and sharp waves of notes before Read more…

Posted on 04 August 2015

Joe Satriani – ‘Shockwave Supernova’ [Review]

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Shockwave Supernova is the definitive modern-day Joe Satriani album. Equal parts catharsis and cool, a seamless blend of contemporary and classic vibes, this is Satriani at his best. The instrumental guitar maestro continues to rule the roost after almost three decades at the top.

Those are big words – but this is a big album. Shockwave Supernova is made up of fifteen tracks, during which Satch never holds back. From a technique perspective, it may be relatively restrained – but in terms of raw, uncensored emotion…man. Sometimes it makes for difficult listening.

True artists, great musicians, communicate the sound of something welling up in the subconscious before finding Read more…

Posted on 24 July 2015

Alex Brubaker – ‘The Architect; The Engineer’ [Review]

The guitar world has long fallen foul of the “music-as-sport” cliché. Walk down any bohemian city street and you’re likely to come across a six-string-toting busker or two frantically punching out notes like Morse code. Like thousands of others before them (and thousands more still to come), they take technique to its highest heights, but forget to say anything in the process.

Pecussive acoustic guitar maestro Alex Brubaker has a lot to say. The Architect; The Engineer may be dense notewise, but Brubaker speaks with grace and eloquence through Read more…

Posted on 01 June 2015

Joe Satriani – ‘On Peregrine Wings’ [Review]

Joe Satriani is widely acknowledged as one of a kind. The instrumental guitar maestro’s magnum opus Surfing With The Alien kicked instrumental rock guitar into the stratosphere way back in 1987 – and Satch is still keeping his creative momentum going almost 30 years later. Satriani’s new album Shockwave Supernova features TMMP regular Marco Minnemann on drums alongside Read more…

Posted on 23 May 2015

Steve Vai – ‘Stillness In Motion (Vai Live In L.A.)’ [Review]

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Steve Vai does not do things by halves.

Stillness In Motion is an instrumental guitar DVD extravaganza like no other. As with every other Vai release to date, Stillness In Motion is riddled with Steve Vai’s signature sense of artistry, humour, and no-holds-barred dedication to quality. Running at over 6 hours (one roughly two-and-a-half-hour show augmented by Read more…

Posted on 08 April 2015

Plini – ‘The End Of Everything’ [Review]

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Instrumental guitar EPs shouldn’t sound like this. They should be awful, self-indulgent shitfests full of pointless musical masturbation. They definitely should not be beautiful, glorious, or epic.

On The End of Everything, Plini has done everything wrong.

Take the drums, for instance. They should be Read more…

Posted on 04 March 2015

Yossi Sassi – ‘Desert Butterflies’ [Review]

In an endless ocean of heavy-shredding soundalikes, instrumental rock guitarist Yossi Sassi stands out a mile. Fusing impressive compositional skills with masterful technique and no small amount of hard-earned feel, Sassi quickly dives into subtle time signature changes on the mellifluous Marty Friedman collaboration Orient Sun before Read more…

Posted on 10 February 2015