Al+di+meola

Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection
I like Di Meola's music and trying to see and hear him live at any possibility (to be honest, during last some years he is very regular in our side of Europe).And I like his different music - perfect early electric jazz-fusion albums, and later world -fusion with "World Sinfonia".

Excellent addition to any fusion music collection
Somehow passed over and nearly forgotten, languishing in the shadow of the 'Friday Night in San Francisco' set, is this great album from the guitar hero team.

The sticker on the disc's cover states that this is "a return to his solid-body electric guitar," and while that may be true in parts, Consequence of Chaos is still pretty far from the tense, nonstop electric sizzle of di Meola's first three albums, which are landmarks in the jazz fusion genre. And while there is plenty of electric guitar here - and a musical reconnection with Chick Corea, Steve Gadd, and Barry Miles, all of whom have previously worked with di Meola - this is still dominated by the world music and more subtle framework that have characterized the guitarist's playing for the last few decades. The performances are uniformly excellent, and even though the approach shifts from prog to acoustic to electric and world, di Meola's distinctive style and classy approach congeal the music with authority…

"Anthology" contains all the 'classic' tracks like "Land Of The Midnight Sun" (swinging and dynamic with splendid interplay between guitar, electric piano and the rhythm section, an exciting percussive break and a captivating duel between the Minimoog and guitar), "Race With Devil On Spanish Highway" (spectacular propulsive rhythm and catchy guitar riffs and swirling interplay between guitar and keyboards), "Elegant Gypsy Suite" (wonderful Spanish flavor with acoustic guitar and string-ensemble from Al Di Meola), "Medley: Short Tales Of The Black Forest/Fantasia suite for two guitars" (virtuosic interplay between acoustic guitar, marimba and electric piano), "Alien Chase On Arabian Desert" (spectacular Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer sound and a sultry climate delivering a sensational duel between the guitar and Minimoog), "God Bird Change" (swinging and dynamic rhythm with again great interplay between electric guitar, keyboards and percussion and an exciting percussive break on conga's from Mingo Lewis), "Electric Rendezvous" (sensational atmosphere, very catchy and dynamic featuring howling electric guitar and flashy Minimoog flights from Jan Hammer), "Egyptian Dance-live" (also very dynamic and exciting) and "Crusin'-live" (sounds like The Mahavishnu Orchestra delivering splendid work from Al Di Meola and Jan Hammer). The track "Sequencer" features fiery electric guitar and Jan Hammer on the famous Fairlight computer delivering a catchy sequencer sound, this evokes the time that Jan Hammer worked with Jeff Beck on "Wired". On the short "Bianca's midnight lullaby" Al Di Meola plays romantic acoustic guitar. This compilation includes four previously unreleased tracks, the final two on CD2 are recorded in Holland in 1982.