Guitar-Orientated Instrumental Music

So, since Garsed mentioned Scotty Anderson (& Danny Gatton) and we don't have a lot of Country on this forum...


Guy just brings a smile to my face. And that top-E thumb fingering at 06:30! Ridiculous. Never thought I'd post this kind of music on the forum, but there you go, it's what I opened this thread for.
 
Writing about the new Petrucci album here because I think it appeals to this crowd more than the Dream Theater people.

It’s good! Not quite as eclectic as Suspended Animation (which was already pretty straightforward to begin with), but it delivers in sonic variety with different guitar tones and instrumentation choices. Petrucci is sounding great, he pretty much sticks to his regular bag of tricks but he gets the chance to stretch more than an in Dream Theater. Some nice fusiony chromatic lines, some bluesy stuff, and it was nice hearing him play some jazz chords in Out of the Blue.

I wish he gave the band a bit more room to play, on Suspended Animation he had Damage Control which was very much a full band piece. It had a bass solo, some ensemble parts, and overall felt more composed than anything on here. He’s working with great musicians on this album who sound fantastic throughout, but don’t get any spotlight moments.

To that end, my favorite thing about this album is Portnoy. Petrucci and Portnoy have one of the best musical chemistries in the business and to hear that again in was delightful. There were so many moments that had me grinning from ear to ear. Sometimes these reunions fall short, but I feel like MP and JP were complementing each other even more than on the last couple DT albums they did together. It’s one of those things you take for granted and then don’t realize you miss it until it comes back after 10 years. I would really love to hear more work between the two of them in any context. Even this lineup would be awesome to hear more from, especially in a more collaborative setting. Get Rudess in there or Sherinian, or even Neal Morse for something more songwriting-y.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the album as a hardcore Petrucci fan, but I would certainly recommend it to any appreciator of guitar based instrumental rock.

Favorite Songs: Terminal Velocity, The Oddfather, Gemini, The Way Things Fall, Snake in my Boot
 
Mosh said:
It’s good! Not quite as eclectic as Suspended Animation (which was already pretty straightforward to begin with), but it delivers in sonic variety with different guitar tones and instrumentation choices. Petrucci is sounding great, he pretty much sticks to his regular bag of tricks but he gets the chance to stretch more than an in Dream Theater. Some nice fusiony chromatic lines, some bluesy stuff, and it was nice hearing him play some jazz chords in Out of the Blue.
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So if I was going to start with one, start with SA? How "eclectic" we talking?
 
Not very, it’s only eclectic in the sense that songs like Tunnel Vision and Glasgow Kiss would probably never end up on a Dream Theater album. Otherwise it’s comparable to one of Buckethead’s straightforward rock albums. It’s probably the better one to start with yes, but I really dig the song Gemini off the recent album.
 
I checked out Gemini and some other snippets of the new album. I like the heavier, darker riffs, the acoustic stuff soloing is great. Sometimes a bit 80s sounding guitar, cleanly-distorted and a bit well-behaved. In the compositions, I like it when he gets a bit adventurous.

Have you heard Velorum by Vai @Mosh?
 
Gemini was supposedly written in the 90s, it’s possible there are other older tunes on there.

Not familiar with that Vai album, worth checking?
 
Yep, I like the middle part the most (studio version).

Mosh said:
Not familiar with that Vai album, worth checking?
Click to expand...
Yes, it's good, very fresh stuff on there (the "seven seals" track, for example). And Modern Primitive is a cool album as well, especially the first and the last 3 tracks.
 
Mosh said:
Writing about the new Petrucci album here because I think it appeals to this crowd more than the Dream Theater people.

It’s good! Not quite as eclectic as Suspended Animation (which was already pretty straightforward to begin with), but it delivers in sonic variety with different guitar tones and instrumentation choices. Petrucci is sounding great, he pretty much sticks to his regular bag of tricks but he gets the chance to stretch more than an in Dream Theater. Some nice fusiony chromatic lines, some bluesy stuff, and it was nice hearing him play some jazz chords in Out of the Blue.

I wish he gave the band a bit more room to play, on Suspended Animation he had Damage Control which was very much a full band piece. It had a bass solo, some ensemble parts, and overall felt more composed than anything on here. He’s working with great musicians on this album who sound fantastic throughout, but don’t get any spotlight moments.

To that end, my favorite thing about this album is Portnoy. Petrucci and Portnoy have one of the best musical chemistries in the business and to hear that again in was delightful. There were so many moments that had me grinning from ear to ear. Sometimes these reunions fall short, but I feel like MP and JP were complementing each other even more than on the last couple DT albums they did together. It’s one of those things you take for granted and then don’t realize you miss it until it comes back after 10 years. I would really love to hear more work between the two of them in any context. Even this lineup would be awesome to hear more from, especially in a more collaborative setting. Get Rudess in there or Sherinian, or even Neal Morse for something more songwriting-y.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the album as a hardcore Petrucci fan, but I would certainly recommend it to any appreciator of guitar based instrumental rock.

Favorite Songs: Terminal Velocity, The Oddfather, Gemini, The Way Things Fall, Snake in my Boot
Click to expand...
Listening to TV just now. It's pretty good. A bit cheesy & upbeat for my liking at times. And some of the lead guitar progressions are bit Lick Library tutorial, which is unimaginative, but kinda what I was expecting from JP tbh. A good mix though. Tone I think is great for the rhythm stuff & some of his soloing, but I'd have prefered it a little cleaner for some of the lead work. Not sure if I'm prepared to buy this. Or explore DT either. If he started releasing a lot more solo material (unlikely) it would be pretty interesting though. It's clear he could play anything, but I'm not super interested in what he chooses to play. Also seems quite safe, for him.

Going to return to this & listen to it a few more times though. And check out SA...
 
Plini is awesome. I have some JP stuff coming eventually, busy today.
 
Gordon Giltrap

A few Tangerine Dream songs with nice role for guitar:
1: Ultima Thule Part 1

2: Ride the Ray (live Cleveland, June 24th 1986; at some point the guitar starts ;--) )

3: Green Desert: (plus lots of stuff without guitar, but great instrumental track nonetheless*)

From the Force Majeure album:
4: 0:00 Force Majeure (*here too)
5: 18:17 Cloudburst Flight (*here too)
 
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Yes in a nutshell this is the reason why most instrumental albums don't make it to the masses. They are albums made by über-musicians for musicians. In other words the niche is small!

Although I personally find Satch music absolutely mindblowing, I am still a bit amazed his 'Surfing' album made it to the masses. But then I don't fully understand the 80s music scene either.
 
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