swbf2cheater
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2009
- Posts
- 5,044
- Likes
- 121
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Artists Spotlight - Fusion Guitar Masters
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I'd like to try to bring the music back to the forums, perhaps encourage more talk about the music and introduce some of you to my favorite musicians. I'd like this to be a weekly column, if it goes well and you like the idea, please let me know by showing your support by leaving some comments below. I'd like this to be a small discussion on what headphones you find work best with these artists if you should decide to rummage through their collective works.
This Column will showcase links to Youtube and Spotify: A FANTASTIC FREE PROGRAM that I enjoy very much that allows you to sift through, pick and choose your favorite songs from virtually any album and add them to a playlist. The Basic edition of the program is free with some advertisements, but premium versions allow for better sound quality and no ads. Its worth looking into. A direct link may not work for anyone outside the US, lucky for us here in the states. Here is a link to the website.
Week 1 is all about Fusion Guitar: A genre of Rock that employs hints of Jazz, Blues, Funk and R&B sounds with a strong focus on improvising on the fly. Lightly touched on during the 1940s by Django Reinhardt, the Godfather of all modern Guitar music, and again re-founded by the great Jimi Hendrix, Fusion is a type of love it or hate it sound. I've found that most listeners in today's age of music goers have almost no interest in Jazz or Blues. Perhaps too complex for the current brainwashed Auto Tuned gen: where did the music go, indeed. Thankfully, some of us hold onto the good stuff from yesteryear. Artists like Phil Keaggy were pioneers of this new Fusion sound back in the 70s and early 80s, without these beautiful minds, I'd be a much sadder man today. This genre is worth exploring, I promise you that you won't regret it. Fusion Guitar changed my outlook on modern music, as there are plenty of hidden artists lurking out there beyond the horizon, simply waiting for your ears to discover them.
The first artist I would like to introduce you to is a man I regard as The Musical Genius of our Times: Guthrie Govan. Born in 1971, this prodigy later rolled with the famous band Asia for a time, was awarded Guitar Magazines Guitarists of the Year award in 1993 and has toured on the down-low ever since. Govan slowly working his way into the Musical Underground as I call it. Relatively unknown to the majority of the world, this man single handedly changed my outlook on all modern music potential. Years ago, when I discovered him by accident searching Youtube late one night for new talent to add to my music collection, I quickly realized Guthrie could very well be one of the best Guitar players I've ever seen, certainly so in today's near talentless MTV Generation. Guthrie is immensely well rounded and can play almost anything you ask of him, but what sets this man apart from the majority of the world of popular guitarists of the modern age is that his music is almost purely improvised. His simply breathtaking talent for music knows no bounds: you ask him to play it and he does. Its just that simple, yet, he does it with a smile, with great humor, class, style and grace all in improvisation. This is a rare gift. Back in 2006, he released his first album called Erotic Cakes. Which happens to be one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, an awe inspiring album that takes the listener through an emotional journey as Guthrie himself has felt it. His improv tells the tale of how he was feeling when he recorded that day. Guthrie sounds best with large sounding headphones like the Hd800, Sony F1 and similar. Sets moderately potent on the low and with lush, large and spacious mid ranges and exceptionally amazing highs. Earbuds like the Sennheiser MX980 really shine with his album.
One of my favorite tracks is called Waves, an incredibly powerful and jaw dropping experience that even to this day I simply cannot get bored with. Funny, if you choose to search Youtube for more videos of Guthrie playing any of his tracks off this album, you will quickly understand not one of them sound the same. All of them are 95% improvised and have a different flavor every single time he plays it. They only get more crazy as time goes onward. Here is the album version via Youtube, I highly suggest looking this up with Spotify for instant streaming access to Guthries Album. Please let me know what you think of this artist after you experience some of his other tracks and works, his instructional videos or his live performances.
The second artist I would like to introduce to Head Fi is a more reserved, more tonally balanced guitarist and musician named Marco Sfogli. An Italian born musician, this man is the polar opposite of Guthrie style with equal shock and awe abilities. Where Guthrie is an outside the box player, utilizing unconventional and selectively harder to understand riffs, Marco is the tonal master of gorgeous sound. He flows, almost effortlessly, smooth at all times, never playing anything too hard on the ears or too off the wall. Simply a breathtaking talent who can easily seduce you into seclusion in your listening area for many hours. Marco played with Dream Theater for many years, like Guthrie, he slowly made his way into the lime light.
Theres Hope was an incredibly moving and seductive album Marco produced himself. It is evident that Marco took a clear shot at Guthries Album, Erotic Cakes, as the physical set up of Andromeda is eerily similar to Erotic Cakes. By that, I mean Guthries album is composed of different styles of music, jazz, blues, rock, country, ect ect. The physical layout of the tracks is set up nearly the same on Marcos album, some tracks with the same number also have the same type of genre being played, and even sort of have the same title name, in one example called "Sevens" on EC and "Seven" on Theres Hope. Still, Marco needs not copy Guthrie at all, he is equal in his technical and improvisational master. Guthries Kung Fu is hard, TIGER CLAW, HAMMER FIST, DRAGON KICK OF DEATH. Marco is soft, Tai Chi, Crane style. Equally as incredible, parallel in epic flavor but on separate paths flowing in the same direction. Check out Marcos title track Andromeda below, what a fantastic and tonally balanced sound. I recommend using moderately paced headphones with great depth like the LCD2, something with solid low end and a natural flavor. Unbiased. The Hifiman He500 is another set that I very much enjoyed listening to Marco with.
The last musician I would like to showcase is one of the more recent editions to my collection of music, the hardest player I've ever seen and could very well be the worlds best shredding metal guitar player ever: Andy James.
Andy is a unique beast. The arpeggio and neo classical master. He stands in the middle ground between Guthrie and Marco. He is a pure, 100% unadulterated shredding heathen. Under no circumstances are you ever to allow this statement to sway you away from Andy. His technical mastery and clean sound is near unrivaled. I've been unable to find anyone like him in my many years of listening and playing rock and metal music. James is one of few, if not the only person I know of who can shred on this type of scale with high musicality. This really type of sound was thought impossible by my former self prior to discovering Andy. Other guitarists who play the Neo Classical and Fusion style at this pace are never improvisational masters, technically proficient but also highly musical. His selective riffs make sense and are well patterned, well thought, well planned and executed. Andy is the first to make me realize speed metal can be combined with Fusion guitar and lightning fast improv. What a great sound for rocking out, Andy is wicked. Nuff' Said. Have you any idea how amazing this sounds through the Philips L1, Fischer Audio FA011 or similar sets? My goodness, if you have bassy cans, you are going to go nuts for this guys work. He, like Marco and Guthrie is capable of playing anything. Cycling through his albums, each one sounds different from the last, ranging from speed metal, a slower paced Satriani style to something in the middle and back again. Amazing metalist in a world filled with mindless guitar mashing.
Hopefully, I've sparked enough interest to make you want to further investigate these three Artists. All of them are game changers, in my opinion. All of them have shocked me to the core with their music, I can only hope I've shined a light bright enough on them. My playlists have never been happier, I hope you enjoy the musical journey these three amazing musicians can offer you.
-Mike
( I just realized this was posted in the Headphones section, thank you for moving it to the correct area, I apologize for that )
Artists Spotlight - Fusion Guitar Masters
______________________________________________________________________
I'd like to try to bring the music back to the forums, perhaps encourage more talk about the music and introduce some of you to my favorite musicians. I'd like this to be a weekly column, if it goes well and you like the idea, please let me know by showing your support by leaving some comments below. I'd like this to be a small discussion on what headphones you find work best with these artists if you should decide to rummage through their collective works.
This Column will showcase links to Youtube and Spotify: A FANTASTIC FREE PROGRAM that I enjoy very much that allows you to sift through, pick and choose your favorite songs from virtually any album and add them to a playlist. The Basic edition of the program is free with some advertisements, but premium versions allow for better sound quality and no ads. Its worth looking into. A direct link may not work for anyone outside the US, lucky for us here in the states. Here is a link to the website.
Week 1 is all about Fusion Guitar: A genre of Rock that employs hints of Jazz, Blues, Funk and R&B sounds with a strong focus on improvising on the fly. Lightly touched on during the 1940s by Django Reinhardt, the Godfather of all modern Guitar music, and again re-founded by the great Jimi Hendrix, Fusion is a type of love it or hate it sound. I've found that most listeners in today's age of music goers have almost no interest in Jazz or Blues. Perhaps too complex for the current brainwashed Auto Tuned gen: where did the music go, indeed. Thankfully, some of us hold onto the good stuff from yesteryear. Artists like Phil Keaggy were pioneers of this new Fusion sound back in the 70s and early 80s, without these beautiful minds, I'd be a much sadder man today. This genre is worth exploring, I promise you that you won't regret it. Fusion Guitar changed my outlook on modern music, as there are plenty of hidden artists lurking out there beyond the horizon, simply waiting for your ears to discover them.
The first artist I would like to introduce you to is a man I regard as The Musical Genius of our Times: Guthrie Govan. Born in 1971, this prodigy later rolled with the famous band Asia for a time, was awarded Guitar Magazines Guitarists of the Year award in 1993 and has toured on the down-low ever since. Govan slowly working his way into the Musical Underground as I call it. Relatively unknown to the majority of the world, this man single handedly changed my outlook on all modern music potential. Years ago, when I discovered him by accident searching Youtube late one night for new talent to add to my music collection, I quickly realized Guthrie could very well be one of the best Guitar players I've ever seen, certainly so in today's near talentless MTV Generation. Guthrie is immensely well rounded and can play almost anything you ask of him, but what sets this man apart from the majority of the world of popular guitarists of the modern age is that his music is almost purely improvised. His simply breathtaking talent for music knows no bounds: you ask him to play it and he does. Its just that simple, yet, he does it with a smile, with great humor, class, style and grace all in improvisation. This is a rare gift. Back in 2006, he released his first album called Erotic Cakes. Which happens to be one of my absolute favorite albums of all time, an awe inspiring album that takes the listener through an emotional journey as Guthrie himself has felt it. His improv tells the tale of how he was feeling when he recorded that day. Guthrie sounds best with large sounding headphones like the Hd800, Sony F1 and similar. Sets moderately potent on the low and with lush, large and spacious mid ranges and exceptionally amazing highs. Earbuds like the Sennheiser MX980 really shine with his album.
One of my favorite tracks is called Waves, an incredibly powerful and jaw dropping experience that even to this day I simply cannot get bored with. Funny, if you choose to search Youtube for more videos of Guthrie playing any of his tracks off this album, you will quickly understand not one of them sound the same. All of them are 95% improvised and have a different flavor every single time he plays it. They only get more crazy as time goes onward. Here is the album version via Youtube, I highly suggest looking this up with Spotify for instant streaming access to Guthries Album. Please let me know what you think of this artist after you experience some of his other tracks and works, his instructional videos or his live performances.
The second artist I would like to introduce to Head Fi is a more reserved, more tonally balanced guitarist and musician named Marco Sfogli. An Italian born musician, this man is the polar opposite of Guthrie style with equal shock and awe abilities. Where Guthrie is an outside the box player, utilizing unconventional and selectively harder to understand riffs, Marco is the tonal master of gorgeous sound. He flows, almost effortlessly, smooth at all times, never playing anything too hard on the ears or too off the wall. Simply a breathtaking talent who can easily seduce you into seclusion in your listening area for many hours. Marco played with Dream Theater for many years, like Guthrie, he slowly made his way into the lime light.
Theres Hope was an incredibly moving and seductive album Marco produced himself. It is evident that Marco took a clear shot at Guthries Album, Erotic Cakes, as the physical set up of Andromeda is eerily similar to Erotic Cakes. By that, I mean Guthries album is composed of different styles of music, jazz, blues, rock, country, ect ect. The physical layout of the tracks is set up nearly the same on Marcos album, some tracks with the same number also have the same type of genre being played, and even sort of have the same title name, in one example called "Sevens" on EC and "Seven" on Theres Hope. Still, Marco needs not copy Guthrie at all, he is equal in his technical and improvisational master. Guthries Kung Fu is hard, TIGER CLAW, HAMMER FIST, DRAGON KICK OF DEATH. Marco is soft, Tai Chi, Crane style. Equally as incredible, parallel in epic flavor but on separate paths flowing in the same direction. Check out Marcos title track Andromeda below, what a fantastic and tonally balanced sound. I recommend using moderately paced headphones with great depth like the LCD2, something with solid low end and a natural flavor. Unbiased. The Hifiman He500 is another set that I very much enjoyed listening to Marco with.
The last musician I would like to showcase is one of the more recent editions to my collection of music, the hardest player I've ever seen and could very well be the worlds best shredding metal guitar player ever: Andy James.
Andy is a unique beast. The arpeggio and neo classical master. He stands in the middle ground between Guthrie and Marco. He is a pure, 100% unadulterated shredding heathen. Under no circumstances are you ever to allow this statement to sway you away from Andy. His technical mastery and clean sound is near unrivaled. I've been unable to find anyone like him in my many years of listening and playing rock and metal music. James is one of few, if not the only person I know of who can shred on this type of scale with high musicality. This really type of sound was thought impossible by my former self prior to discovering Andy. Other guitarists who play the Neo Classical and Fusion style at this pace are never improvisational masters, technically proficient but also highly musical. His selective riffs make sense and are well patterned, well thought, well planned and executed. Andy is the first to make me realize speed metal can be combined with Fusion guitar and lightning fast improv. What a great sound for rocking out, Andy is wicked. Nuff' Said. Have you any idea how amazing this sounds through the Philips L1, Fischer Audio FA011 or similar sets? My goodness, if you have bassy cans, you are going to go nuts for this guys work. He, like Marco and Guthrie is capable of playing anything. Cycling through his albums, each one sounds different from the last, ranging from speed metal, a slower paced Satriani style to something in the middle and back again. Amazing metalist in a world filled with mindless guitar mashing.
Hopefully, I've sparked enough interest to make you want to further investigate these three Artists. All of them are game changers, in my opinion. All of them have shocked me to the core with their music, I can only hope I've shined a light bright enough on them. My playlists have never been happier, I hope you enjoy the musical journey these three amazing musicians can offer you.
-Mike
( I just realized this was posted in the Headphones section, thank you for moving it to the correct area, I apologize for that )
