Wired For Culture6 Mark Pagel

Jordan Rudess has been the full-time keyboardist with Dream Theater since 1999’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, as well as releasing his own acclaimed solo works with accompanying solo tours, developing his own range of award-winning keyboard apps, writing instruction books and teaching online keyboard courses. And now comes his latest solo release, Wired For Madness. Bursting and flowing forth with all of the drama, technique and melodicism that have become his musical hallmarks, the album also features the keyboard wizard handling many of the vocals. It blends old-school prog and piano with a ferocious and typically ambitious oeuvre that’s as tasteful and classic as it is outrageously expansive.

Formed nearly a decade ago, galvanized by Tampa hardcore and inspired by its miscreant noise, "A Corpse Wired For Sound signals" a new chapter for Merchandise. Following 2014’s "After The End" - a full-band effort recorded in a closet - the band stripped back to its core of Carson Cox (vocals, electronics), Dave Vassalotti (guitar, electronics) and Pat Brady (bass). The trio travelled to Rosà, Italy for their first ever sessions in a recording studio, with a local, ICIO. The nine-song, nocturnal A Corpse Wired For Sound was recorded half in the studio and half at home, in Tampa as well as Cox’s newly adopted bases of New York and Berlin - the culmination of a long-distance collaboration between Cox and Vassalotti.

Jordan Rudess has been the full-time keyboardist with Dream Theater since 1999’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, as well as releasing his own acclaimed solo works with accompanying solo tours, developing his own range of award-winning keyboard apps, writing instruction books and teaching online keyboard courses. And now comes his latest solo release, Wired For Madness.