M3 Recommends

In the beginning of every month I put up links to four albums available on eMusic, an online store selling downloadable mp3s, without the annoying restrictions of DRM (digital rights management). The purpose is to promote some artists and musical styles that do not get as much exposure as they deserve. There is no particular emphasis on guitar-oriented music (although I have to admit I have a soft spot for prog rock and fusion). Click on the album cover, and you will hear the first 30 seconds of each track streaming from eMusic's site. If you click on the album title, you are taken to the album page on eMusic. I subscribe to eMusic, and I have done so since 2001, but I am in no way affiliated with them. You can preview their albums a million times from this page in the safe knowledge it makes zero difference to my bank balance.

July

	'Personae' by Jonas Hellborg. I am generally not a fan of live recordings but I will make an an exception here to highlight an unfiltered Shawn Lane, one of the most talented guitarists ever. His solo on Rice With the Angels is unreal. Shawn suffered from bad health all his life and died tragically young in 2003 at the age of 40.
	'My Home Is My Tent' by Michael Schiefel. Vocals only, by one person only, heavily multi-tracked and processed. Here is somebody who is not worried about breaking with tradition. Great stuff.
	'Gabriel Szternsztejn' by Gabriel Szternsztejn. Pure and minimalistic music based on acoustic guitar and percussion.
	'Pulled Apart' by Terra Deva. Good vocal pop with a few discrete techno-beats thrown in.

June

	'Starke Stücke' by Panzerballett. This is as hard as it gets. The covers of Pink Panther, Smoke on the Water, and Birdland are wild, and 'Zickenterror' is just mad. What imagination and what execution.
	'The Voice of Silence' by Palle Mikkelborg. Palle Mikkelborg is a Danish musician who plays the trumpet but he is arguably more famous as an arranger. He did 'Aura' with Miles Davis in the late eighties, and here he has put together nine songs for the beautiful Louisiana museum outside Copenhagen. It is played by the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra. It has a slowly evolving flow and there are themes that repeat in different sections so allow yourself to sit down for just over an hour and listen through the whole thing in one go. It is worth it.
	'Place To Be' by Hiromi. Solo piano that has to be heard to be believed. How does anybody learn to play like that?
	'The RPWL Experience (Special Edition)' by RPWL. Loud pop, a bit on the mellow side, with some unexpected twists and great choruses. The band certainly knows what it takes to create a hit.

May

	'I've Known Rivers' by Billy Childs. Modern jazz with very sophisticated arrangements. Excellent combination of acoustic and electronic instruments, and, of course, distorted electric guitar.
	'A Tale Of A Tortured Soul' by Orenda. Prog Rock alert! Impossibly complicated arrangements, odd time signatures, dramatic story-telling. I love ambitious projects such as this one. Great playing by everybody.
	'Signals' by Wayne Krantz. Wayne Krantz is another fusion club VIP. His arrangements flows in a very natural way without following the traditional block structure. The snap he gets into the solo guitar piece 'One of Two' is amazing.
	'In The Pink' by Donna Lewis. Donna Lewis' claim to fame is that her song "I love you always forever" has got the most airplay in the history of radio (think about it. That is h e a v y rotation). She makes intelligent pop music, a bit on the mellow side, and it is well produced.

April

	'Amalgame 30' by Christophe Briand. Hard fusion with a heavy groove, with the virtuoso performances you would expect in that style. And it has one of the coolest album covers I have seen in a while.
	'We Used To Dance' by Andile Yenana. Acoustic jazz, melodic and easy to follow even though the harmony is complex. Good variation in the material, it never feels repetitive.
	'P.O.E.A.S (Pictures of Earth & Space)' by Bartz. Stylistically on the New Age side, a bit further out than I usually go for, but you just have to admire the soundscapes produced by the String Station.
	'Strange Kind Of Love' by Love and Money. I listened to this album a lot around 1990. There is nothing too spectacular happening here but the songs are catchy, carefully arranged, and competently played. The production is clean in a way you don't hear too often nowadays. The laid-back shuffle groove in 'Jocelyn Square' is my favourite, it just makes me want to sit back and relax.

March

	'Blueberry Cave' by Garaj Mahal. The band includes bassist Kai Eckhardt who I first became aware of when he was with John McLoughlin in the early nineties. Trilok Gurtu was also in that band, and he is clearly making an appearance here on the very first track although he is not listed in the album credits. The music has great energy and it is played with an incredible sense of time.
	'Solo Guitar' by Ted Greene. Anybody who plays jazz guitar ought to know the great Ted Greene and his books on single-note soloing and accompaniment, no matter how many strings your instrument has and how you tune it. This is the only album he ever recorded. I heard it only after I had spent several hundred hours going through his examples, and his frequent use of harmonics was a complete surprise to me.
	'Complicated Protocol' by Complicated Protocol. Your game console would sound like this if it was into Earth Wind and Fire, and Return to Forever. Made in Japan, not surprisingly.
	'Three Fact Fader' by Engineers. Pop that manages to be mellow and extremely loud at the same time. The highly compressed sound that is used so often nowadays usually puts me off but it works well here.

February

	'Another Lifetime' by Simon Phillips. The legendary British drummer goes heavy-fusion with a tribute to Tony Williams. He grooves hard, as usual, and the sustain and the ring he gets out of his kit is extraordinary. The build-up at the end of track 5, 'Kumi Na Moja', demonstrates his trademark dynamic style.
	'Sense Trampa' by Cordes Invisible. A wonderful example of how the harmonic sophistication of jazz can be incorporated into the sound of a small classical string section.
	'Realize' by Karsh Kale. A fantastic blend of eastern instruments and modern western dance music. Contains some seriously mean beats. Outstanding production.
	'Ord' by Henning Gravrok Band. It starts off with a couple of straightforward vocal tracks and then goes into a sort of experimental phase before it eventually returns to the surface with a more conventional pop feel. The very last track, 'Alderdommen', is devastatingly beautiful.

January

	'T-Rien' by Edgard Ravahatra. Probably best described as 'folk-funk' if such a thing exists. The groove is infectious and the singer Edgar Ravahatra, who also plays acoustic guitar, has some serious charisma and stage presence. It is well worth looking him up on YouTube.
	'Cement' by Cluster. Cluster is a vocal group, and should not be confused with another act of the same name making electronic music which is nowhere near as interesting. If you are hooked on harmony, like me, this will blow you away. It must have taken ages to put the arrangements together. You are unlikely ever to come across a more imaginative cover of Abba's SOS.
	'Metal Fatigue' by Allan Holdsworth. A classic album by the incredible fusion guitarist Allan Holdsworth. His solo on Devil Take the Hindmost is among the baddest I have ever heard.
	'White - Ceaskat' by Sofia Jannok. A great pop album, very well produced. The 'transistor-radio' character of the voice provides a nice intimate feel.