MOMM

Recent acquisitions; two diverse genres but I embrace everything guitar-related.

Stern/ Lorber: Eleven

Unbelievable chemistry from these two master musicians. Mike Stern is still one of my reference idol when it comes to playing choice notes. I believe jazz inclined players like Scofield & Metheny manifest such thinking as well. They teach you to hold back, craft the ideas according to feel more than anything. Unleash the fury when the time is right. Otherwise, holding back is a sign of control/ Jeff Lorber, folks, has plenty of feel good tunes up his sleeve. Things might be jazzy here mostly but he hyped things up by carving out the happy melodies regardless of the mood.

1349: The Infernal Pathway

There's no hiding that I'm a big fan of Frost; one of the best skin beaters in this type of intense music. His efforts with Satyricon are strict discipline, the 1349 moments are pure drumming armageddon, nothing less. TIP is a far cry from the brazen debut, Liberation. The guitars & overall production here are polished affair. In fact, this might be the only down side of this awesome release; things sound too presentable despite the swirling madness but I rather it be this way than another serving of Dark Throne. The album is interspersed with instrumentals, nothing technical but the ambient kind. It brings back the Demonoir moments so nothing new here. However, each song was crafted to be different so none from the list of 11 is a definitive representation of what TIP is about, let alone what 1349 is about if you still praise them for the raw assault of Liberation. From an appraisal perspective, it's a story & the songs are unique chapters to ensure nothing became predictable. Compared to its predecessor (Massive Couldron of Chaos), despite its diversity, I deem this to be a more focused effort. With every song, the band delivered what they had to say according to a certain theme in mind. There were no confusions & obligations to cascade each song's concept onto another. Then again, this is why this release has no definitive feel to it which isn't a bad thing. 

FYI, 1349 is collaborating with the Munch Museum for artistic merit as one of their songs, Dodskamp, is inspired by the late artist's painting, Death Struggle.

On that note, this marks the start of my MOMM series of entries (Music of My Moment) where I highlight my flavour of the moment which is largely guitar related but there are times when it's not. Music is universal & it inspires us, regardless if there are guitars in there.