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California Guitar Trio: rocks the west
by Michael Askounes
Somewhere deep within the town of Precision – which lies perilously close to the active volcano, Mt. Pretension – lies the California Guitar Trio. The three acoustic guitar virtuosos that make up this eclectic band, Bert Lams, Paul Richards, and Hideyo Moriya are summa cum laude graduates from Robert Fripp’s League of Crafty Guitar Players. This ...
The Flower Kings: Space Revolver
by Michael Askounes
Your journey with The Flower Kings’ latest release, Space Revolver begins with traditional symphonic progressive rock – beautifully arranged keyboards, guitar and mellotron combine to start the trip in familiar prog territory. However, just when you start to settle into your headphones, you somehow realize that the boys in the band have taken an unexpected sharp ...
Quarkspace: Spacefolds 6
by Michael Askounes
Multi-instrumentalists and improvisational space rockers Quarkspace have recently presented inhabitants of the planet Earth with yet another 70 minute helping of tripped-out trance-inducing ambience with their newest release, Spacefolds 6. Sounding sort of like a mix between The Matrix Soundtrack and one of Robert Fripp’s “ProjeKcts,” Quarkspace fares quite successfully in this attempt at improvisational techno-tunes ...
Geno White: Standing in Stereo
by Michael Askounes
Who is Geno White, you ask? Well, that’s what I asked as well when I received his 1996 instrumental guitar showcase Standing in Stereo for review. However, after a few listenings, I was surprised that EVERYONE doesn’t know who this fellow is – White is an A-list guitarist with a sound very reminiscent of Lifeson and ...
Synesthesia: Synesthesia
by Michael Askounes
OK jazz fans, what d'ya get when you cross Canadian culture with Iranian culture? A back bacon kabob? A genie in a beer bottle? A hockey game where the penalty for icing is decapitation? No, sillies... you get acoustic jazz newcomers Synesthesia, and a promising - but not perfect - self-titled debut album full of sonic ...
Various Artists: The Ambient Eclipse
by Michael Askounes
After listening to a few ambient recordings and reviewing them, I’ve noticed one glaring problem with the whole ambient genre. It’s not that the music isn’t relaxing – on the contrary, the feeling I have after listening to The Ambient Eclipse is one that I imagine would be akin to taking a bath in a pool ...
Hermetic Science: Prophecies
by Michael Askounes
Ed Macan - scholar, author, progressive rock aficionado... and mallet percussionist. His band Hermetic Science (the band that brought you “Mars: The Bringer of War" played on the marimba) is back for another go around of “vibrariffic" music with their second CD titled Prophesies. However, this time around Macan brought some other instruments along for the ...
Rockenfield Speer: Hells Canyon
by Michael Askounes
Multi-instrumentalists Scott Rockenfield and Paul Speer have teamed up to release Hells Canyon, a CD of tracks inspired by the mystique surrounding its namesake – the deepest gorge in North America. Speer and Rockenfield’s attempts at capturing the enigma of Hells Canyon and translating it into music are successful at times, but for the most part ...
Mike Keneally: Dancing
by Michael Askounes
“Hey, this sounds like Joe Jackson! No, no, wait a minute... it’s a lost Frank Zappa tune! Yeah, that’s it – it’s... hold up – that’s Adrian Belew! Those guitar stunts could only be done by... err... now what it Dave Matthews doing here? Oh never mind... it doesn’t matter who it is when it’s THIS ...
Cosmosquad: Cosmosquad
by Michael Askounes
Hey isn’t that Steve Ray Vaughn?!?! No – wait a minute – it’s Clapton, I just know it! WAIT! It’s some cheesy new age acoustic guy! No, no, no... it’s Steve Vai! Hold on a minute... it’s... It’s Jeff Kollman – man of 1,000 styles and studio guitarist extrodinaire – and a couple of his buds, ...
