|
Another
guitarist to appear on the Lion Music roster is the much-respected Alex
Masi. Following Masi’s success with his ‘In The Name of …’ trilogy and his
more recent MCM project, Masi returns with fellow MCM band mate John
Macaluso for his latest offering ‘Late Night At Desert Rimrock’.
With Alex there
is always a more diverse and intricate feel to all his projects and this
new release is no different, with Alex playing all instruments bar drums
on this album, he has pretty much given himself free reign to experiment a
little more than usual on the album.
The album itself
took a number of years to complete, with the drums section and bass being
recorded initially, then Masi putting the final guitar and other
instruments on later. As the album unfolds it's plain to the
listener that this process took a couple of years to complete, as each
track is as individual as you can get and is clearly a work done over a
passage of time when Masi himself was at different junctures in his life.
The album opens
up with ‘Vagina Denata’ a hard edged rock track that will mystify Masi’s
fans who were into his neo-classical releases. This is Masi at his
outrageous best, shredding the riffs like there is no tomorrow.
The album
continues with ‘You Asked’, a more bluesy feel to this one with a
touch of haunting bass, once again Masi has let his imagination run wild
with this one.
Masi starts to
get a little funky with ‘Antistructure’, while still keeping up that
experimental phase of the album as the seemingly wild and untamed guitars
on this album are once again an ever present force.
The album takes
a more gentile road with ‘Love Is A Resonance’ before the bizarrely titled
‘Asparagus Piss’. A real mix of rapturous drums and soaring guitar
interwove between some funk ridden bass and experimental jazz. Where
as ‘Disembodied In Mojave’ and ‘Tiktaalik In Evolution use Masi’s studies
of Arabic and Persian musical styles to give these two tracks a very
Eastern feel.
‘The Smess Of
Weightlessness’ is a very haunting track with yet again some Middle
Eastern vibes wrapped around a heavy bass and a simple drum beat. If
the last few tracks are full of Eastern promise then ‘Telling England By
The Sound’ is Western culture portrayed in a musical montage of hectic
guitars and busy drums.
That funky jazz
feel is once again present with ‘His/Her Dosage’ before the truly bizarre
‘Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t’, a track where sections would make an
excellent soundtrack to a modern Hitchcock style thriller.
The album closes
with ‘Unsolved’, another experimental effort with its electro style Space
Oddity style effect ridden feel, a short track that sums up the album
completely.
It’s hard to
categorise, no it’s impossible to categorise this album in any one genre
as Masi himself says "Late Night At Desert Rimrock is not meant to
satisfy any one SPECIFIC fetish but MANY fetishes combined”.
Fans of Masi’s
earlier work may not approve of this albums direction but if you’re a fan
of experimental guitar album then you will just love this sometimes weird,
sometimes wonderful release. |
