Prashant has put together a solid band for this album with Rhonda Smith on Bass, Joey Heredia on Drums and guest solos from Bret Garsed and Rob Caggiano of Anthrax and also a band called ‘The Damned Things’ also with with Scott Ian. Bret plays the first solo on the 2nd track of the album ‘Drive‘ which is a great mid tempo rocker that will have you immediately nodding your head. Aside from being a virtuosic solo guitar player Prashant is a really tight rhythm player and it is worth listening to tracks like this a few times ignoring the main lead guitar to hear how impressive the backing tracks are.
‘Make It 14‘ is so named I presume due to the main theme which is in 14/16 time, this track therefore leans a little more to the jazzy side of Prashant’s tracks although there are some great bluesy rock runs in the solos too. Prashant has a very fluid style similar to Greg Howe where he never seems to run out of ideas whilst playing over changes that would have most scratching their head, it never sounds like Prashant is having to play any pre-prepared fallback licks.
‘11 Miles‘ is a ballad focussing on Prashant’s natural sense of melody, with an incredible solo and a recurring 10/16 time section again displaying Prashant’s comfort with complicated time signatures to enhance a particular phrase or riff. It’s quite difficult to write a riff or melody in an odd time signature and have it sound natural rather than doing it for the sake of it, I think Prashant draws from
‘11 Miles‘ is a ballad focussing on Prashant’s natural sense of melody, with an incredible solo and a recurring 10/16 time section again displaying Prashant’s comfort with complicated time signatures to enhance a particular phrase or riff. It’s quite difficult to write a riff or melody in an odd time signature and have it sound natural rather than doing it for the sake of it, I think Prashant draws from
‘5 Am‘ is another track where I like to list a few times to the backing track, Prashant leaves a lot of space but accentuates the rhythm with his crunchy overdrive guitars chugging away and layered clean guitars over the top and of course for Rhonda Smith to play some great bass lines ducking and weaving under the main lead.
‘Pardon Me‘ is another slow track where you can hear the Tabla coming through more prominently in the mix, sometimes you forget it is there on this album and then you will suddenly hear a distinctive double-time fill or rhythm hammering away underneath. Nice melodic playing again on this track which reminded me of Jeff Beck.
‘Narrow Path‘ reminds me of the kind of track Joe Satriani used to write way back like ‘Hordes Of Locusts‘ with lots of dissonant melodies and whammy bends although the harmony is probably a bit more progressive than Joe would have used shifting keys fairly regularly. This track is one of my favourite on the album because although it is so obviously Prashant Aswani it contains elements of some of my favourite players like Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Steve Vai.
‘Rain‘ is the only track where Prashant uses a completely clean tone throughout, accompanied by acoustic guitar, fretless bass and Tabla. Prashant also uses Keyboards to create a Tanpura style sound to fill out the arrangement. This is a nice chilled track that breaks up the distorted guitars really well ready to dive back in with ‘Shades Of Gray‘, a track that you may have already heard either on Prashant’s current competition running on www.thepublicrecord.com/prashant where you can win an ESP guitar. You can also hear it on the PublicRecord.com promo on YouTube here.
The album closes with a track called ‘Pure At Heart‘ which has an Eric Johnson/Steve Morse style volume swelled intro before launching into a classic Prashant Crunch riff, he certainly gets some great sounds from his Bogner amps and has a very distinctive lead tone that he always uses. This track features a great solo from Rob Caggiano someone who I would never pick to play on a Fusion album but his brutal solo is a great and it compliments Prashant’s solo really well.
‘Pardon Me‘ is another slow track where you can hear the Tabla coming through more prominently in the mix, sometimes you forget it is there on this album and then you will suddenly hear a distinctive double-time fill or rhythm hammering away underneath. Nice melodic playing again on this track which reminded me of Jeff Beck.
‘Narrow Path‘ reminds me of the kind of track Joe Satriani used to write way back like ‘Hordes Of Locusts‘ with lots of dissonant melodies and whammy bends although the harmony is probably a bit more progressive than Joe would have used shifting keys fairly regularly. This track is one of my favourite on the album because although it is so obviously Prashant Aswani it contains elements of some of my favourite players like Joe Satriani, John Petrucci and Steve Vai.
‘Rain‘ is the only track where Prashant uses a completely clean tone throughout, accompanied by acoustic guitar, fretless bass and Tabla. Prashant also uses Keyboards to create a Tanpura style sound to fill out the arrangement. This is a nice chilled track that breaks up the distorted guitars really well ready to dive back in with ‘Shades Of Gray‘, a track that you may have already heard either on Prashant’s current competition running on www.thepublicrecord.com/prashant where you can win an ESP guitar. You can also hear it on the PublicRecord.com promo on YouTube here.
The album closes with a track called ‘Pure At Heart‘ which has an Eric Johnson/Steve Morse style volume swelled intro before launching into a classic Prashant Crunch riff, he certainly gets some great sounds from his Bogner amps and has a very distinctive lead tone that he always uses. This track features a great solo from Rob Caggiano someone who I would never pick to play on a Fusion album but his brutal solo is a great and it compliments Prashant’s solo really well.
Tracklist:
01. Stephanie
02. Drive
03. Make it 14
04. 11 Miles
05. 5 AM
06. Pardon Me
07. Narrow Path
08. Rain
09. Shades of Gray
10. Pure at Heart
02. Drive
03. Make it 14
04. 11 Miles
05. 5 AM
06. Pardon Me
07. Narrow Path
08. Rain
09. Shades of Gray
10. Pure at Heart
================
320K
