George Bellas: The Dawn of Time (2010)

In the beginning there was nothing... And then there was light! The Dawn Of Time. Fifteen billion years later George Bellas presents to you an epic collection of instrumental songs inspired by the universe, how it was created, and from where and what it came from.

'The Dawn Of Time' is an instrumental album rich in Romanticism and Futurism with over-the-top performances by Marco Minnemann and George Bellas. The album contains a diverse collection of 19 songs that range from simple and delicate, to complex and ferocious. The production is dynamic, clean, and has an open sound to it allowing the music to breath naturally.

Bellas comments, “For this album I wanted the arrangements to be short and accessible, and the songs to be euphonious and tonal, especially when compared to my previous album, which was a single 75 min song and atonal for the most part. For some songs I wanted to utilize compositional techniques and elements from the baroque, classical and romantic eras, and also have other songs lean more on the progressive side by using modern aspects of music. Another important factor to me was the melodies, I wrote some in a lyrical style, and others in a virtuoso instrumental style. I strived for a pleasing balance of the two”.

'The Dawn Of Time' was inspired by the universe, how it was created, and from where and what it came from. Bellas states, “I have always loved science, especially astrophysics, and this album is a creative expression of the visions produced from studying the works of great scientists such as: Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Michio Kaku, Amy Mainzer, and Brian Green, to name but a few. Their research, thought-provoking lectures and writings have been the most inspiring resources I have ever had. This album is different from my last two releases which were ultra modern in style, and "The Dawn Of Time" consists more of a neoclassical sound, along with some futurism sprinkled throughout. This new album is also more aggressive sounding than my previous release. The production on "The Dawn Of Time" is very open with lots of dynamic headroom. I do not subscribe to the volume wars that the industry has been in since the advent of the compact disc. When I want to hear something loud I much prefer to use this neat little invention called a volume knob. So, if this album seems quieter than other albums you're used to - TURN IT UP!”

Marco Minnemann once again performed and recorded some mind blowing drum takes. Bellas – “Working with Marco is always an extreme pleasure. I truly believe Marco to be one of the best drummers that has ever lived. I compose and score all the parts for all instruments in my music, but when I hear Marco's interpretation and the additional Minnemann pizazz he adds, it just blows me away and really takes the parts to a whole new level. And believe me, just playing the complex rhythms I throw at Marco can be daunting, but for him to play them with the intensity and personality that he does is just sheer over-the-top talent”.

The voracious writing process began shortly after Bellas’ previous release "Step Into The Future" was turned in to the record label. Bellas comments, “As I usually do, I first scored out all the parts, and then proceeded to track the guitar, bass, drums and keys. The guitar was recorded through a Focusrite Red Series mic preamp into an Apogee Rosetta 800 converter, and then optically straight into a DAW through an RME PCI card".

"The bass guitar sound on this album was recorded differently from my previous releases. For this album I used a Musicman Stingray bass plugged into an Ampeg SVT Classic amp and cabinet. I used a Sennheiser MD421 to mic the bass cabinet and combined that with the direct out of the amp. Another factor of achieving the bass tone was using a custom made isolation box for the mic, not an iso-box for the whole cabinet, but just the mic. Having the isolation box surround the mic allowed me to selectively increase or decrease the amount of room reflections. For guitars and amps I used the usual assortment of Fender Strats, Gibson Les Pauls, a Marshall 1976 MKII, a Marshall JCM800, and a few JCM900 Marshall amps. For the majority of the album no compression was used, and in the few spots that it was used it was a minimal amount”.

Tracklist:

1. Cyclone
2. Seeding The Universe
3. Let There Be Light
4. The Dawn Of Time
5. Machine Man
6. Voyage To Triangulum
7. Mysterious Light
8. Mystical Dream
9. Glimmering Stardust
10. Electromagnetic
11. Genesis Of Life
12. Carbon Creature
13. Suns of Andromeda
14. We Are Not Alone
15. Nightmare Awoken
16. Primordial Atom
17. Metropolis
18. Always At My Side
19. The Angels Are Calling

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George Bellas: Step into the Future (2009)

The ever prolific GEORGE BELLAS is back, less than a year on from his previous solo album 'Planetary Alignment' with his boldest and most progressive body of work to date in "STEP INTO THE FUTURE". The name George Bellas is synonymous with stretching musical boundaries and human imagination with his musical compositions. This new album is ultra-modern in style and really reaches out to a futuristic sound in its compositional sense and outlook. The album ranges from the explosive to the ethereal with emotionally stirring segments. Adding to its uniqueness "STEP INTO THE FUTURE" consists of just one song that is 76 minutes in length.

George's goal on "STEP INTO THE FUTURE" was to compose ultra-modern sounding music that used composition techniques that he had not previously used on any of his other releases. George comments, "I did not initially plan to write a 76 minute song, it just came out that way. I just kept writing and writing and as more ideas came to me, I eventually realized that this was turning into a behemoth of a song. The album was not a bunch of separate tracks that were merged together after the fact, but it was indeed written as one long continuous piece. There are several factors that differentiate "STEP INTO THE FUTURE" from my previous releases, one of which is that this album contains only one song that is 76 minutes long. Other significant factors are the compositional techniques that I employed. Although I am known to compose very complex, progressive music, I did not want to use the same elements found on my previous releases. So, all fresh scales, meters and chords were written specifically for this album. I was very much inspired by advanced compositional techniques such as: Interval Sets, Twelve Tone Serialism, Poly-Meters, Poly-Chords, Quartal and Quintal Harmony to name a few. I was also inspired to have a bunch of very melodic guitar playing with very lyrical themes that at times had a melancholy feel to them. To put it simply, I was imaginatively inspired with what the future may hold. I would also say that "STEP INTO THE FUTURE" is the most dynamic album I have released so far. This album was not written as a showcase for guitar solos, it is composition in the truest and finest sense there is. I really strived for something that captivated my senses with ultra imaginative, highly unique, creative writing".

Backed once again by the ultra impressive drum work of Marco Minnemann of whom Bellas proudly states, "Marco Minnemann did an incredible job on this album. I sent him some very complex rhythm scores and he plowed right through them recording nothing short of awe inspiring drum performances. I truly consider Marco Minnemann to be one of the best drummers that has ever lived. It was a honour to have a musician of such high calibre contribute to "STEP INTO THE FUTURE"".

Whilst this maybe perceived as specialist stuff, "STEP INTO THE FUTURE" has enough variation to take the listener on a journey through unchartered musical territories and will reward those bold enough to take on the challenge.

Personnel:

George Bellas - guitars, bass, keyboards
Marco Minnemann - drums

Tracklist:

1. Step Into The Future

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Jason Sadites: Weve (2009)

Following up his first release 'Orbit', Jason returns with 11 brand new instrumental fusion tracks! This incredible CD features performances by many of the worlds top musicians, including Kenny Aronoff, Tony Levin, Marco Minnemann, Gregg and Matt Bissonette, Jerry Marotta, Chad Wackerman and Brett Garsed among others! Along with the aformentioned players, Jason displays stunning performances throughout the CD, weaving his strong melodies, tight harmonies and amazing solos over the songs incredible grooves. If you are a fan of great instrumental songwriting combined with truly inspirational performances, this is a CD you won't want to miss!

Tracklist:
01. Swart 3:45
02. Self Evolving System 3:43
03. Weave 4:44
04. Oddly Enough 4:32
05. Is It Safe To Go In There 4:30
06. Fluid 3:54
07. Silent Repercussion 1:03
08. That's Gonna Leave A Mark 3:33
09. Afterthought 4:32
10. Reversal 3:56
11. Memetic Hazard 5:01
Personnel:
Jason Sadites (Guitar)
Tony Levin (Bass and Chapman Stick [Tracks 1-5,9,11])
Matt Bissonette (Bass [Track 6])
Martin Motnik (Bass [Track 8])
Kenny Aronoff (Drums [Track 1-3])
Marco Minnemann (Drums [Tracks 4,5,11])
Gregg Bissonette (Drums [Track 6])
Chad Wackerman (Drums [Track 8])
Jerry Marotta (Drums [Track 9])
Brendan Colameco (Drums [Track 10])
Brett Garsed (Guitar Solo #1 [Track 5])
Carlo De Lorenzi (Organ [Track 4])
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Bryan Beller, Guthrie Govan, Marco Minnemann: The Aristocrats (2011)

The Aristocrats were formed almost by accident when Guthrie Govan was called in as a late replacement for fusion-meister Greg Howe to play The Anaheim Bass Bash featuring Bryan Beller on bass and Marco Minnemann on drums, Guthrie said in a recent interview with Guitar Player Magazine that when they walked off stage they simultaneously said “This is working. We should record this.” and so The Aristocrats were born.

Guthrie had been touring around the world doing clinics with Suhr Guitars for years promoting his growing collection of Guthrie Govan Signature models and usually accompanied by long time Suhr employee Ed Yoon. Ed has now left Suhr and is The Aristocrats full time manager, he has been posting photos of the recording process on various forums including Guthrie’s latest setup which includes a Suhr Badger 30 and Custom Audio Amplifiers (by Suhr) PT100 replacing his amp of choice for the last 5 or so years since his debut solo album ‘Erotic Cakes‘ was recorded.

Meanwhile Bryan Beller was someone who I knew via the Steve Vai live DVD ‘Where The Wild Things Are‘ and Dave Weiner’s album ‘On Revolute‘ but my god the man has played on so many albums it is quite incredible, check out his discography which includes a huge chunk of Steve Vai’s back catalogue which I didn’t realise as well as Dweezil Zappa and Mike Keneally, oh and Dethklok of course!
The final piece of the aristocratic trio is Marco Minnemann, someone Guthrie Govan describes as a “preposterously accomplished drummer… He’s a freak. He’s not physically possible. Plus, there’s something a little bit naughty about him” (see the album back cover below!). When I think of Marco I think of this video in particular Paul Gilbert – Scarified but you can check out http://marcominnemann.com/ for more info, he was also one of the selected few to be chosen to audition as the new Dream Theater drummer which in itself is very high praise.
So that’s a little background into the trio of utterly incredible musicians known as The Aristocrats, so onto their self-titled debut album.
“One thing I really hate is when it’s just the guitar player doing all the interesting stuff and in the background you’ve got the drums just laying down a simple beat and the bass playing root notes. That bores me. Live music should be about the interaction between the people in the band. People already know that our trio is going to be about the interplay between its players.” – Guthrie Govan in a recent Guitar Player interview.

That quote really sums up this album, it sounds like a really well produced live album, in fact that is probably what it is? I’m not sure these guys would ever need to overdub anything with their talent. What they have done to make this sound live is to avoid the multi-layered over-produced albums that are such common place these days, sure there are tracks which have rhythm guitar parts as well as a guitar melody over the top such as the first track ‘BOING!… I’m In The Back‘, but even then it is only in places, for the most part it is a single guitar part playing both the rhythm and lead parts. If you think of what Andy Timmons did on ‘Resolution‘ you will get the idea. What this obviously does as well is to enable this music to be faithfully recreated live without the audience feeling anything is missing, but it also demonstrates the utter brilliance of each of its members. By the way when I first heard this track I thought I was listening to a demo mix for the first minute… you’ll see what I mean when you hear it but I’ll just say that the title is very fitting and it had me tricked!

When I heard the intro to the cheekily titled ‘Sweaty Knockers‘ I stopped what I was doing, restarted the track and turned up the volume really loud. THAT is the rhythm tone I have always wanted, if I could bottle a rhythm tone this is it, but what makes this track stand out isn’t the wall of sound that this track begins with but the amazing dynamics throughout from all out rock to delicate melodies which are instantly recognisable as Guthrie Govan. This is a pretty epic track clocking in at 8:09 with many twists and turns including a great Bass solo from Bryan using a Wah, it’s like Cliff Burton and Jaco Pastorius had a baby. This track is my favourite on the album it has everything from all out rock to Guthrie’s pseudo slide playing a la Jeff Beck and country licks and then little jazzy breaks where Marco gets to strut his stuff in spectacular style.

As this is a trio with plenty of room for each player you are more aware of the bass playing and drumming. This is probably one of the only albums I can remember in years that had me humming a bass line for days after hearing it, Bryan Beller is amazing he doesn’t overplay but when the music calls for it he just steps it up a notch and you hear little chord slides and licks that fit so well under Guthrie while being totally locked in with Marco. Oh and the bassline I was humming was from ‘I Want A Parrot‘, the melody is actually the main theme that Guthrie plays at the beginning but when you hear it played by Bryan it is transformed from Guthrie’s distorted rock melody into a very vocal sounding unforgettable melody. Bryan’s playing throughout this track is astounding I find myself listening to what he is doing a lot.

This album is quite eclectic and I think ‘Furtive Jack‘ is probably the best example bringing together many styles, it has a Tango feel to begin and then suddenly after a couple of minutes dives into a bebop version of the main theme, super fast walking bass line and super smooth octave lines and fast runs from Guthrie. To completely contrast this section there is another change of pace and feel halfway through maintaining the main theme but with overdriven guitars.

It wouldn’t be right to have these guys together and not produce a track with some humour in it and ‘Blues Fuckers‘ certainly has that not only in the title but also in the playing, it starts off like Peter Gunn on speed before taking a funk turn with Guthrie using what I believe is an Xotic Effects Robotalk a crazy envelope filter that sounds really cool with Guthrie’s fast funky chord strumming.

When I was sent the album I was told to give it a few listens to really absorb what is going on, I think that is actually good advice, I have listened to it about 10 times before writing this review and each time I’m hearing more detail and enjoying each track more. Of course as a fan of Guthrie Govan there is absolutely no possible way of being disappointed but this band is as he says much more than just a solo guitar album, this is a real band with each member contributing equally to the music. As a guitar nerd it’s cool to hear how different Guthrie Govan’s playing is 5 years on from ‘Erotic Cakes‘, now don’t get me wrong I love that album but if you are not a guitarist it is probably a bit intense, there is a lot of shredding on that album. The Aristocrats is much more restrained in a sense, it is more about the music, the melodies the interplay of musicians. Guthrie doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone, we all know he is one of the most talented guitar players in the world so now he can just concentrate on doing what he loves, writing and playing great music in a band. The final track on the album ‘Flatlands‘ is the perfect demonstration of this side of Guthrie, I think of it as Guthrie’s “Lenny”, a beautiful piece of music with tasteful bluesy playing.

The most exciting news for me is that The Aristocrats intend on making the trip downunder at some point and I for one cannot wait for them to tour Australia because I think it will be really exciting to see them play together.

Tracklist:

1. Boing!... I'm In The Back 4:59
2. Sweaty Knockers 8:09
3. Bad Asteroid 5:53
4. Get It Like That 7:46
5. Furtive Jack 6:52
6. I Want A Parrot 9:58
7. See You Next Tuesday 4:32
8. Blues Fuckers 4:59
9. Flatlands 7:13

Personnel:

Bryan Beller: bass
Guthrie Govan: guitar
Marco Minnemann: drums

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Tony MacAlpine: ST (2011)

T-Mac is back with his first official solo album since 2001’s Chromaticity. It’s his 13th solo disc in a career spanning 25 years. This self-produced new release is the heaviest thing he’s ever done, and it’s full of jaw-dropping shred, soothing classical flourishes, skull-bludgeoning rhythms, and epic 8-string guitar action.

With a 10-year hiatus behind him—and having worked off and on with Ring of Fire, CAB, Steve Vai, Planet X, and Devil’s Slingshot—MacAlpine now returns to center stage. As a classical pianist who multitasks in jazzfusion, funk, and metal, he brings a unique and harmonically rich point of view to his compositions. Planet X bandmate and drummer extraordinaire Virgil Donati guest stars on three tracks and their chemistry is super strong. The technical, melodic, and rhythmic concoctions these guys create together make for an intense listening experience.

Drummer Marco Minnemann plays on “Fire Mountain,” “Dream Mechanism,” “Pyrokinesis,” and “The Dedication.” He brings to this record the kind of super chops and musicality that made him a finalist for the Dream Theater drummer auditions. MacAlpine handles the rest of the drum programming, and gets some of the best guitar tones of his career using his 7- and 8-string Ibanez guitars through a Hughes & Kettner TriAmp. What he lacks in sonic earthiness, he makes up for with a smooth clarity that highlights the nuances in his playing.

MacAlpine moves seamlessly from high-intensity, alternate-picked passages to rubbery legato lines, angular harmonies, and brutal riffs. This is offset by the peaceful serenity of compositions like “Flowers For Monday,” a lovely Di Meola-esque duet for acoustic guitar and piano. “The Dedication” quotes 19th-century German composer Robert Schumann, and once again demonstrates MacAlpine’s knack for blending Romantic-era classical music with his own artistic vision.

On first listen, it’s a very hard and in-yourface record, but with repeated listens, one can’t help but notice the harmonic sophistication, passion, and the high level of intricate compositional prowess. Tony MacAlpine is one of the best instrumental records of the year, and it ranks right up there with his 1994 disc, Maximum Security.

Tracklist:

1."Serpens Cauda" 4:22
2."Oludeniz" 5:15
3."Fire Mountain" 4:23
4."Dream Mechanism" 4:18
5."Ten Seconds to Mercury" 4:35
6."Flowers for Monday" 3:04
7."Angel of Twilight" 5:02
8."Pyrokinesis" 3:56
9."Blue Maserati" 4:41
10."Summer Palace" 4:35
11."Salar de Uyuni"  5:39
12."The Dedication" (Robert Schumann) 4:22

Personnel:

Tony MacAlpine – electric guitar, seven-string guitar, eight-string guitar, keyboard, drum programming, bass guitar (except track 2), production
Virgil Donati – drums (tracks 1, 5, 10)
Marco Minnemann – drums (tracks 3, 4, 8, 12)
Philip Bynoe – bass guitar (track 2)

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