Trey Gunn / Marco Minnemann: Modulator

By GLENN ASTARITA
October 19, 2010
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Track review of "Flood"

Touch guitar ace Trey Gunn composed this album based upon Marco Minnemann's 51-minute Normalizer 2 drum solo. Thankfully, this is not a bash fest; instead, the drummer's rhythmic foray features odd-metered polyrhythmic episodes and textural cymbal swashes amid a cavalcade of salient percussive concepts.

The preponderance of the largely, contiguous tracks do indeed pronounce a modulating framework; on "Flood," the duo exercises restraint to complement the sinuous journey. Gunn's limber touch guitar work encompasses fretless guitar and basses to complement his electronics overlays. Yet, "Flood" is a piece that typifies many of the other tracks, due to the musicians' fluctuating paradigms, ambient treatments and stinging trade-offs.

They abide by a capacious mindset, whether Minnenmann is throttling matters into overdrive, or Gunn is dishing out a prismatic array of soundscapes. The artists feign over-indulgences, and sustain interest by fusing disparate sounds and intricately devised grooves into these rapidly-moving parts.

Personnel: Trey Gunn: guitars, fretless guitars, touch guitars, basses, keyboards, samples, arrangements; Marco Minnemann: drum kit.

Title: Modulator | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: 7D Media