DUCK

I will admit that I got caught up in the propaganda that THE ARISTOCRATS were nothing but a trio of show-offs and wankers playing cold technical music. What a load of crap that is. They released their first four studio albums in the 10's and I didn't bite because of misinformation. Heck even I was thinking, why didn't they just call themselves THE WANKERS? And I never heard a note of their music. Sorry guys. This is a tasteful and mature release that is actually their first concept album. All instrumental. I have their last two albums, both from the 20's and both are so impressive. All three guys tend to share compositions equally. What a talented band!

I have had the pleasure of seeing Marco Minnemann live, and while he was earning that "over-drummer" tag during that show, it's hard to complain when he may be the best drummer on the planet. Best drum performance I've seen and heard live. And Marco came up with the idea of the duck story here. Bryan Beller is a beast I must say, one of the best bassists going these days. And Guthrie Govan certainly sounds like a Holdsworth fan. He has a lot of tricks in that playbook of his.

I read this quote from Guthrie on Holdsworth. "I consider his work to be every bit as revolutionary as that of jazz legends Charlie Parker and John Coltrane... evidently not content with redefining what was possible on the guitar, he also managed to rewrite pretty much the whole of music theory, coming up with all manner of chord voicings which had never been heard before and then concocting brand new scales to compliment them". Allan might have been the greatest musician ever. Subjective yes. But no one has done this with their instrument. All have been influenced by those who went before them. Not Holdsworth.

So we get about an hour of music here with each member contributing three tracks. This is a consistent record and I might add that the production could not be more perfect. It was tough to pick favs here because it is so consistent, but there's one track that stood out for me above the rest and that's "Slideshow" composed by Guthrie Govan. There's some beauty on this track starting around 1 1/2 minutes, spacey even. But like with all their music, they contrast well, and repeat themes, making it interesting and adventerous. Love the bass before 4 minutes and the heaviness a minute later.

I like the sampled sounds to start "Here Come The Builders" that reminds me that this is a concept album. Hearing the sounds of a neighbourhood. The one song I'm so-so on is the closer. It's because of the guest violinist who brings an ethnic vibe with it. Quite different from their previous record where there was a twenty something string orchestra helping out. I don't skip it, it's just not on the level of the rest in my opinion. It's a good song.

So a solid 4 stars for "Duck" and I will be paying more attention to the projects that these three are on moving forward, including of course future THE ARISTOCRATS releases. And I wouldn't be surprised if concept albums are their thing in the future, it gives some guidance when you're making instrumental music.

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