THE BENDS

This is the band that I knew quite strange enough from attending a seminar in Singapore where one of the participants said that he knew a rock group which was very popular in Singapore where many youngsters love them very much. So browsed the CD at HMV and found out this album "The Bends" which did not impress me at all at first spin because there did not seem so obvious what kind of music they are playing. Since then I never believe people's recommendations unless I can check it out on what taste does he have. Otherwise I got in trouble buying new CDs for me. With the passages of time I was not bothered to spin the CD until I read and article from Guitar book that says Jonny Greenwood was considered as one of the most innovative guitar player. According to the article, the album where Greenwood plays his innovative work is "The Bends". Based on this info, I grabbed the CD and played it at my stereo set.

Having experienced and exposed to many types of prog music from neo prog, symphonic prog, prog met, avant garde, Zeuhl, and RIO, I finally can see the beauty of this album especially in producing soundscapes and effects from guitar. This is especially true with the music of Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles, etc. I can see that Radiohead is innovative in this manner. The melody line is basically very straight forward from intro to end of each song. But the textures and music layers are quite dynamics from one particular segment to another. The extreme case is for track 8 "My Iron Lung" where the use of effects is quite subtle and very easy to identify. I am here not to talk about whether or not Radiohead is prog - it's irrelevant to discuss now. The point is, yes, Radiohead's strong point for me is the creativities to produce sound effects from guitar. This is proven with me watching the DVD of Radiohead in Amnesty International performances. I can see from my eyes how the band played the effects on great song "Paranoid Android" from "OK Computer" album.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

DragonForce "Live in Jakarta: May 19, 2007". Featuring The Fastest Metal Guitar Virtuoso. Be There! Or Die!