Total Guitar August 2006

Guitarist, ideologue and SF fanatic, Pinhas has influenced a wide assortment of contemporary musicians and electronic composers. Though primarily remembered for his uncompromising work with industrial rock pioneers Heldon, Pinhas' solo recordings are vital expressions of his own personal commitment to the intersection of rock with philosophy, science fiction, technology and revolutionary politics. Metatron finds Pinhas in relatively calmer waters than on previous solo efforts - though not without a few brain-searing guitar leads for which he's well known. But overall, the twelve pieces on Metatron show Pinhas' maturation as a composer of sound as opposed to a composer of songs…

Silhouette describes itself as Melodic/Symphonic Rock. All songs are composed by the band-members themselves who are influenced by bands as Genesis, Marillion, Pink Floyd and IQ among others.
The genesis of the band was Jos Uffing responding to an ad from Brian de Graeve in 2001. Brian was looking for a drummer & singer for his band. By the time Jos called though, the band had already broken up. But during the phone call, they found that they had a shared taste related to music. So they kept in touch , working on their own songs & sharing them with each other from time to time. By 2004, they came to a point where they felt they were ready to get a band going to complete their songs…

Silhouette describes itself as Melodic/Symphonic Rock. All songs are composed by the band-members themselves who are influenced by bands as Genesis, Marillion, Pink Floyd and IQ among others.
The genesis of the band was Jos Uffing responding to an ad from Brian de Graeve in 2001. Brian was looking for a drummer & singer for his band. By the time Jos called though, the band had already broken up. But during the phone call, they found that they had a shared taste related to music. So they kept in touch , working on their own songs & sharing them with each other from time to time. By 2004, they came to a point where they felt they were ready to get a band going to complete their songs…

Whips and Roses is a collection of previously unreleased material from the 1975 rock album Teaser by Tommy Bolin. Released on April 25, 2006, it features newly discovered takes from songs found on Teaser as well as several instrumental jams heard for the first time on this album. Several songs on Whips and Roses were originally released on the album Teaser. These versions are remixed from alternate takes remaining from the Teaser sessions. Many of these new renditions feature extended arrangements and radically alternate guitar solos from the original album.

For this, his 10th album in as many years, Tom "Squarepusher" Jenkinson is in playful mood. He has said Hello Everything is him "having a laugh" after recording several albums that were, at times, frustrating and difficult listens. This CD may divide his fans - which include Andre 3000, Thom Yorke and Flea - as some prefer his material to sound more like a drum kit and a bag of cats being kicked down a flight of stairs. On the other hand, others will be glad to hear an album brimming with tunes. Dazzling chord progressions override fiendishly intricate beats as Jenkinson combines the elation of rave with the complexity of jazz…

Too Much Guitar shows two prolific guitarists at their best. Recorded live at The Cellar, Bill Coon and Oliver Gannon, both veterans of the Canadian jazz scene, are an imaginative duo who make their instruments sing in amazing new ways. Theirs is a conversation across the ages steeped in both the modernistic sounds of John Scofield and Bill Frisell as well as the traditional jazz sounds of Jim Hall and Wes Montgomery. Accompanied by "Darren Radtke" on bass and Dave Robbins on drums, the ensemble plays such rarely heard standards as "Chi Chi" by Charlie Parker, "Have You Met Miss Jones," and "Darn That Dream." Sharply tuned and harmonically pleasing, Too Much Guitar taps deep into the improvisational potential of the music without losing sight of its original structure…

The various white lead guitar gods who began to garner so much critical press during the rock explosion of the late '60s owe more than a lot to Elmore James. While working as a radio repairman in the early '50s, James spent hours rewiring speakers and amplifiers so that they would deliver the kind of harsh and distorted sound he favored when he played electric guitar through them, and that act of rebuilding amps alone would have made him an unsung hero to rock guitarists everywhere a decade or so later, but James also happened to be a pretty damn good player himself, and there may well not be a more powerful and exciting sound on Earth than James' trademark "Dust My Broom" slide guitar riff, which bottled megawatts of power, energy, and passion into one swooping rush…

Three brothers - Joe, William and Paul - from Racine WI. Joe plays guitar and sings, William plays electric bass, keyboards and sitar, and Paul is a drummer. Kopecky is an American band with a variety of influences. They have elements from the latest era of King Crimson, some prog metal, some ethnic influences and even some more traditional prog influences. Occasionally the approach is similar to Terry Bozzio's Black Light Syndrome. The result is a powerful sound with a variety of approaches and interesting musicianship. The drummer Paul passed away in 2009. The band made a memorial concert in 2011 on his 40th birthday with many bands participating.

Sony's The Essential Judas Priest collection is the perfect middle ground for those who found 2004's four-disc Metalogy box a bit too daunting. Each and every one of the 34 tracks is indispensable, chronicling the group's rise from Queen-worshipping debutantes to revolutionary metal gods. It's often the case that when career retrospectives take a non-linear approach to their sequencing, the resulting play list becomes a mess of clashing recording techniques and jarring style changes, but Priest has always held true to its vision, experimenting early on with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in ways that seamlessly bridged the gap between their Gull and Columbia years. From the opening avatar scream of 2005's comeback single "Judas Rising" to the introductory guitar swells of Screaming for Vengeance's "The Hellion/Electric Eye" - no live cuts or Tim "Ripper" Owens-era tracks were included - this is one compilation that's worthy of its moniker.

The Mars Volta are continual contenders for the mantle of most experimental high-profile rock group, along with System of a Down, an artist they've toured with but who usually sell 20 times more records. Mars Volta aren't as popular, not because their riffs are less memorable or innovative but because their cycle of musical buildup and release, although similarly jarring, can last at least 20 minutes instead of System's two. (It's the difference between having a background in acid rock and having one in thrash.) While the early reports on third album Amputechture commented that the duo of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez had learned a few lessons about silence and forsaken the concept album, don't believe it…