You have to love an artist who puts out a single called This Song Won’t Get Played On the Radio, it tells you a lot about their world view, their sense of humour, their ability for slight self-deprecation. I like this guy already. There is also a lot to like in his second solo album, Wonders of The Invisible World, a collection of rock instrumentals built from deft yet ornate guitar work, fantastic sonic dynamics and just enough support from a rhythm section which knows how to do their job perfectly and not get in the way of the song.
You have to love the titles of his tracks too, a far cry from the usual, run-of-the-mill repetitions and sounding more like chapter headings from a mystical, science-fantasy, cyber-punk, dystopian tome. Making A Homonculus is a collection of gothic atmospherics, stark, staccato crescendos and fret-board finesse, Night of The Neurotoxins wanders between high drama and country rock vaudeville…it is much better than I make that sound, trust me, and Arachnochakra is incendiary blues-metal…if there is even such a thing.
It’s a great album, one which communicates through its lush strings and dramatic flourishes rather than via any lyrical component and does so better than the next ten rock wordsmiths put together. The pen might be mightier than the sword, but it can’t beat an axe in the right hands!
