I remember seeing a video a few years ago of a young 18 year old Nili Brosh playing a Guthrie Govan solo that she had transcribed herself. At the time Nili had just started at Berklee College of Music and she has gone from strength to strength performing with two of the greats Guthrie Govan and Andy Timmons, not only that but Andy Timmons actually guests on her debut album. I’ve since seen a few videos of female guitarists where everyone says they are incredible but really it is just because female guitar players are in the minority but Nili is the real deal as proven on her debut album ‘Through The Looking Glass‘.
Make no mistake this album is a rock instrumental in the vain of players like Steve Vai, in fact the opening tracks ‘The House Of Tomorrow‘ is very Vai-like. Nili has amazing technique and her playing flawless and show an obvious massive commitment to the instrument over the years. The compositions are definitely on the progressive side of Rock not sticking to obvious chord progressions all the time and not afraid to step outside with her playing from time to time. There is also a lot of melodic playing throughout as shown in the next track ‘Lost in Suburbia‘ where Nili shows both sides of her virtuosic abilities from singing melodies to ferocious legato lines and tapped licks.
‘Hat Tricks‘ is a cool jazzy track which proves that Nili is not just a one trick pony as you would expect from a Berklee student, it also has a nice Flamenco interlude which features her brother Ethan. You can definitely hear the influence of players such as Guthrie Govan on this track.
I don’t want to take away from the amazingly talented Miss Brosh but the drumming on ‘High Strung‘ is outstanding! This is a really fun funky rock track where Nili lets her hair down and goes crazy with a Vai inspired solo complete with Whammy antics and Wah, but then follows with a tasteful clean Jazz solo with great phrasing and arpeggios.
I don’t want to take away from the amazingly talented Miss Brosh but the drumming on ‘High Strung‘ is outstanding! This is a really fun funky rock track where Nili lets her hair down and goes crazy with a Vai inspired solo complete with Whammy antics and Wah, but then follows with a tasteful clean Jazz solo with great phrasing and arpeggios.
The title track ‘Through The Looking Glass‘ is a sentimental sounding track with an anthemic theme that builds to a memorable chorus melody. This is probably one of the most vocal sounding guitar performances on the album maybe because of the structure of the track or maybe because of the mixture of her subtlety in the verses compared with her expressive ferocity in the chorus sections.
‘Placebo‘ has a bit of Joe Satriani or John Petrucci sound to it due to the scales used, Phrygian Dominant I presume? It then goes into a completely different section halfway through with a bizarre sounding Jazz solo that is so out that it actually made me wince, I’m not a massive Jazz fan so my ears aren’t totally accustomed to this kind of harmony so I relaxed when it dropped back into the main theme.
‘Wafer‘ is a rock boogie kind of track and features a solo from Andy Timmons in fact you can check out a recent video Nili posted jamming ‘Deliver Us’ with Andy and plays almost a carbon copy of everything Andy plays for the entire track, impressive.
‘Never Be Enough‘ is quite Iron Maiden sounding which is probably quite deliberate as I just read that Nili has recently been performing with female Iron Maiden cover band ‘The Iron Maidens‘, it features the galloping rhythms, harmonised guitar melodies and Dave Murray-esque solo trills.
The album closes with a track called ‘Typsy Gyspy‘ (awesome drum solo intro!) and is very very Andy Timmons inspired similar to ‘Redemption‘ and I wonder if the title is a cheeky indication of that too? This track is an all out solo fest including a bass solo from Josh Kwolek and great way to end a stunning debut album.
‘Wafer‘ is a rock boogie kind of track and features a solo from Andy Timmons in fact you can check out a recent video Nili posted jamming ‘Deliver Us’ with Andy and plays almost a carbon copy of everything Andy plays for the entire track, impressive.
‘Never Be Enough‘ is quite Iron Maiden sounding which is probably quite deliberate as I just read that Nili has recently been performing with female Iron Maiden cover band ‘The Iron Maidens‘, it features the galloping rhythms, harmonised guitar melodies and Dave Murray-esque solo trills.
The album closes with a track called ‘Typsy Gyspy‘ (awesome drum solo intro!) and is very very Andy Timmons inspired similar to ‘Redemption‘ and I wonder if the title is a cheeky indication of that too? This track is an all out solo fest including a bass solo from Josh Kwolek and great way to end a stunning debut album.
It’s not often you listen to a guitar instrumental and think wow, I can’t wait to hear the next one but having seen Nili’s progression as a guitarist over a few years on YouTube to this point it is obvious that she is going to go on to do great things. What is also impressive is that this whole album was written AND produced by Nili Brosh herself and she even has a credit for the Artwork Concept and Logo!
Tracklist:
1 House of Tomorrow
2 Lost in Suburbia
3 Hat Tricks
4 High Strung
5 Through The Looking Glass
6 Placebo
7 Wafer
8 Never Be Enough
9 Typsy Gypsy
2 Lost in Suburbia
3 Hat Tricks
4 High Strung
5 Through The Looking Glass
6 Placebo
7 Wafer
8 Never Be Enough
9 Typsy Gypsy
Personnel: Nili Brosh (guitar); Tyreek Jackson (bass); Masashi Ushijima (drums); Josh Kwolek (guest bass); Ethan Brosh (guest guitar); Word Strickland (guest guitar); Andy Timmons (guest guitar)
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WMA Lossless
320K
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