Rock, Metal

Steve Vai - Real Illusions: Reflections (2005)

2015-06-02T15:30:56Z

Steve Vai - Real Illusions: Reflections (2005)


1. Building The Church (4:58)
2. Dying For Your Love (4:51)
3. Glorious (4:35)
4. K'm-Pee-Du-Wee (3:59)
5. Firewall (4:19)
6. Freak Show Excess (6:52)
7. Lotus Feet (6:44)
8. Yai Yai (2:37)
9. Midway Creatures (3:42)
10. I'm Your Secrets (4:26)
11. Under It All (8:08)

- Steve Vai - guitars, vocals
- Billy Sheehan - bass
- Jeremy Colson – drums

For his first studio album in five years, Steve Vai came up with a "rock fable" described as follows: "Real Illusions: Reflections is the first part of a multilayered menagerie of vignettes based on the amplified mental exaggerations of a truth-seeking madman who sees the world... Oh, never mind." Sound advice there. Each tune has a description of the "story line" and further track-by-track description is available on Vai's website, but the reality is that the concept doesn't get in the way of the music on this largely instrumental offering. "Building the Church" is everything you'd expect right out of the gate: crunching heavy riffs and wild elastic soloing, but Vai's always been more interested in solid melodies and great attention to sonic detail and tone than he is in empty showboating. As a result, his playing is restrained and lyrical just as often is it is flashy, with the composition itself taking precedence over the soloing. He's got a great ear for arrangements, and can build a track with a thousand guitar parts or turn around and sound just as full with a single guitar, bass, and drums (as on the beautiful "K'm-Pee-Du-Wee"). He's also got a couple surprises: like getting funky with scatted mouth percussion and horn charts on "Firewall" or the amusing and experimental "Yai Yai," with its ticking clock rhythm and crazy talkbox work. "Freak Show Excess" (title says it all) is a wild guitar fest with cool electric sitar, and then there's "Lotus Feet," a live track taken from concerts Vai did with the Metropole Orkester (one of Europe's finest orchestras) in Holland in 2004. As a vocalist, he's gotten way more confident, and while it's doubtful his singing will ever be the primary attraction, he does a fine job here. The playing and production is fantastic, but it seems that with the different styles and feels (along with excellent pacing) Vai really tried to craft a solid album as opposed to a series of dazzling tracks and succeeded nicely. --- Sean Westergaard, allmusic.com

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Steve Vai - The Story Of Light (2012)

2014-01-21T16:47:33Z

Steve Vai - The Story Of Light (2012)


1 The Story Of Light 6:14
2 Velorum 6:08
3 John The Revalator 3:40
4 Book Of The Seven Seals 3:54
5 Creamsicle Sunset 3:29
6 Gravity Storm 5:32
7 Mullach a'tsi 3:55
8 The Moon and I 7:16
9 Weeping China Doll 6:10
10 Racing The World 3:44
11 No More Amsterdam 4:14
12 Sunshine Electric Raindrops 4:15

Musicians:
    Steve Vai - guitar (all tracks) and vocals (8, 11)
    Philip Bynoe - bass
    Jeremy Colson - drums
    Deborah Henson-Conant - harp (7)
    Beverly McClellan - vocals (3, 4)
    Aimee Mann - vocals (11)
    Dave Rosenthal - piano (1)
    Julia Rainy May Vai - Russian narration (1)
    Bob Carpenter - Hammond B3 (3, 4, 12)
    Mike Keneally - keyboards (8)
    Dave Weiner - rhythm guitar (8)

Guitar virtuoso Steve Vai's music has its roots in some unknown interstellar worlds. From his earliest mid-'80s solo output, Vai's largely instrumental tricked-out guitar compositions found some strange middle ground between heavy metal bliss and space-traveling experimentalism. Released in 2005, Real Illusions: Reflection found Vai shifting from his alien undercurrents to a more spiritual vibe, with themes of new age discovery and introspection filling the album. The Story of Light, Vai's eighth studio album of solo work, continues down the spiritual path, infusing his monolithic metal fusion playing with inward reflections, as well as expanding on the "rock fable" begun on the last album. His signature heavily processed tone and liquid playing characterize barnburning runs like the funky "Velorum" and the roadhouse stomp of "Gravity Storm," while softer tracks like "Creamsicle Sunset" and "The Moon and I" wander longingly through various time signatures and modes, the later dabbling with Middle Eastern scales. The most winning moments on The Story of Light are the unexpected ones, as with "No More Amsterdam," a zigzagging ballad about the ennui of world travel that finds Vai duetting with singer/songwriter institution Aimee Mann, who also wrote the song's lyrics. Most uncommon to the guitarist's catalog thus far is his two-part cover of bluesman Blind Willie Johnson's "John the Revelator." This surprising cut is sung largely by Beverly McClellan from television's The Voice, backed by a full gospel choir with samples of Johnson's original recording of the song sampled in intermittently. The effect, much like the entire album, is epic, but not the type of epic we've come to expect from one of the longer-running guitar gods of his era. While always prolific, uncompromising, and inarguably shredding, it's refreshing to see that Vai is still deeply interested in expanding his sound. Even at a well-established level and decades into his craft, Vai takes some surprising risks on The Story of Light, and the album almost always benefits from them. ---Fred Thomas, allmusic.com

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Steve Vai - Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

2013-09-28T15:27:12Z

Steve Vai - Where The Wild Things Are (2009)


1.    Paint your Face
2.    Now we Run
3.    Oooo
4.    Building the Church
5.    Tender Surrender
6.    Band Intros
7.    Firewall
8.    Freak show Excess
9.    Die to Live
10.    All about Eve
11.    Gary 7
12.    Treasure Island
13.    Angel Food
14.    Taurus Bulba
15.    Par Brahm

Musicians:
    Steve Vai - guitar, vocals
    Bryan Beller - bass
    Jeremy Colson -  drums
    Dave Weiner – guitar, sitar
    Zack Wiesinger -  guitar, lap, steel
    Alex DePue - violin
    Ann Marie Calhoun - violin, keyboards

Live at State Theatre de Minneapolis,  Minnesota
29th September 2009.

Taken from a two-hour-and-40-minute sold-out show recorded at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, Where the Wild Things Are is yet another live showcase of meticulously mapped Steve Vai compositions. Much of the material is new, and tested out in front of an unfamiliar but eager audience, with Vai exercising his chops to the limits. It's a chance for him to bust out every trick in the book: blazing through ridiculously difficult scales, double hand-tapping extravaganzas (where he plays the guitar like a piano), and sick string bends and whammy bombs to the point where his custom Jem neck should be left, imaginably, in the same shape as the rubbery guitar on the cover of Flex-Able. The listening experience is more geared toward frequent guitar clinic attendees than someone seeking background music for a day drive. It's not easy listening. It's the kind of stuff that deserves full concentration, and while most will furrow their brows while focusing on the guitar pyrotechnics, the rest of the instrumentalists are tightly locked and highly ambitious in their own right. Touring for the first time as a collective, violinists/keyboardists Ann Marie Calhoun and Alex DePue join Vai, along with bassist Bryan Beller, drummer Jeremy Colson, and guitarist/sitarist Dave Weiner. The virtuosic tendencies run high, the musicianship is incredible, and as a whole, the group sounds more like one of Zappa's stage bands than, say, Roth's. Things are still flamboyant and over the top, as expected from the owner of a three-pronged heart-shaped guitar, but there are signs of maturity. As a guitarist and as a composer, Vai's only getting better with age, as proven by Real Illusions: Reflections' sprawling, elastic "Freak Show Excess" and "Building the Church," running the gamut with haphazard emotional shifts, flawless changes, and otherworldly playing. --- Jason Lymangrover, allmusic.com

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