NEAL SCHON & JAN HAMMER: UNTOLD PASSION

Two giants on their instruments, both with a very distinctive sound: Minimoog wizard Jan Hammer from Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck solo fame and 'master of the biting guitar sound' Neal Schon, known from his work with Santana and Journey. On this CD Jan Hammer organised a kind of 'Journey Party' featuring Ross Valory, Steve Smith and Neal Schon from this legendary USA band that turned from an interesting 'heavy progressive' rock band into a polished 'stadium-rock' formation (but the money was good!). Some people still think that Journey only made commercial crap, well check out the albums Journey and Next and discover their dynamic and powerful sound. The track Kohoutek from their eponymous debut LP contains one of the most exciting guitar soli I have ever heard! So high expectations for this Jan Hammer/Neal Schon project but unfortunately it sounds a bit too polished to me and the vocals by Neal Schon are a bit dull. Don't get me wrong: the level of the compositions is decent, you can enjoy great work on keyboards and guitar but in general this album fails to keep my attention. The two exceptions are the instrumental songs Arc (a swinging rhythm with great Minimoog flights and biting electric guitar) and the moving titletrack: a kind of 'electronic blues' atmosphere with a strong build-up, wonderful synthesizer layers and howling electric guitar and a captivating guitar/synthesizer duel. If you can dig this CD in a mid - or low price section of a record store, check out this CD because of the two aforementioned instrumentals! Rating: 2,5 stars.