It's been a while since this section was announced by the Newsfoxes --- anyone wondering where the girls are, I gave them a few months off after the great job they did on the Pollys last month --- so probably about time I got off my arse and made it happen.
This section will feature artistes known for their expertise behind the keyboard, whether they're pianists, masters of synth or just great keyboard players. Expect to see everyone from Jean-Michel Jarre to Rick Wakeman and from Tony Banks to Sergei Rachmaninov in the coming months and years. The only stipulation I have to make here is that they have to have produced something solo: keyboard players in a band who have not done so cannot be considered for inclusion, no matter how great they are, as this feature intends to showcase albums created by and starring them. Some mention will be made of those who also play/ed in bands, just to give context, but mostly we'll be concentrating on their solo output.
We'll also just be featuring the one album from each artist. May not necessarily be their best, or most famous, but it should in all cases be the album that I consider to be the most representative of their talents. I'm also going to try to ensure that only those who play the keys as their prime, or indeed only, instrument get considered for inclusion. That doesn't include voice, but multi-instrumentalists like Peter Gabriel or indeed Kate Bush may find it hard to make the cut.
Probably a bad place to start, considering I'm not exactly a Dream Theater fan, but I was a little intrigued to see if their erstwhile keysman could make me feel differently about his solo work, so this is the one I've chosen to open the section with, for better or for worse.
Oceana --- Derek Sherinian --- 2011 (Music Theories)
Longtime keyboardist with Dream Theater up to 1999, Derek Sherinian has gone on to found both Planet X and Black Country Communion, and in addition has released seven solo albums, of which this is the most recent. For this album he has gathered together some stellar talent, including Steve Lukather and Steve Stevens on guitars, as well as Tony Franklin and Jimmy Johnson on bass. Sherinian has been called “King of the Keys” by Guitar World magazine, in deference to the rock and almost guitar approach he takes to playing keyboards, and indeed you can hear that right away on opener “Five elements”, where he easily matches the guitarist work of guest Tony McAlpine as he pounds along on a mid-paced rocker which he peppers with a very jazzy piano solo halfway in, showing off his expertise on the piano. Now I'm no fan of jazz, but I have to admit Sherinian knows how to play the keys!
The track returns to rock for the ending, borne mostly on deep organ, with “Mercury 7” coming on on a fast, almost Vangelis-on-speed synth, with nice guitar riffs again from McAlpine, the song rocking along nicely with solid drumming and squealing guitar, getting a nice progressive rock feeling as it rockets along.”Mulholland” swaggers along on a sort of walking, stride blues/boogie beat, with some elements of jazz thrown in for good measure, guitar duties this time taken by Lukather, Sherinian's keys going back to the organ melody of the previous track, with a nice little honky-tonk solo right in the middle. Gives me the impression of Steely Dan meets ELP, if you can envisage that, or your ears can!
“Euphoria” has much more of a Floyd feel, Lukather doing a passable Gilmour impression at the start, and it's a lot slower, the first slow piece in fact. But instrumental albums by their very nature can be terribly boring, and it takes a lot I find to listen to one all the way through. I think Vangelis is about the only one I can listen to again and again; even my favourite keyboard players like Tony Banks or Tony Carey use vocals on their albums most, if not all of the time. I find my attention starting to wander when there's no vocal to tie the music together --- although I love a good instrumental, but a whole album? Hard to maintain the interest.
Also very hard to review, as you're so restricted in what you can say. For what it is, “Euphoria” is a nice change of pace, but it does seem a little overindulgent --- the old problem I find with Dream Theater, it would appear, has followed an ex-member into his own solo work, much to my disappointment. Perhaps some habits are harder to break than others. Still, it takes a lot of self-discipline to keep concentrating on the music and to find things to say about it. To his credit, there are only nine tracks, and no epic monsters: nothing here is over six minutes, but even so, six minutes multiplied by nine is forty-five minutes (roughly) of just instrumental music. Tough call.
“Ghost runner” gets things up and, er, running again, with a splendid solo from the third guitar man to guest on Sherinian's album, the great Steve Stevens. It's a fast, rocky little number with of course plenty of keyboard fills and twiddling, but really it's Stevens' agility on the frets that makes this song what it is. “I heard that” has a mildly interesting mix of reggae and jazz, with some very good guitar from Joe Bonamassa, while “Seven sins” revisits Sherinian's prog roots with DT, a nice heavy Hammond and some very seventies-style keyboards, and the title, and closing track, finally introduces a recognisable melody, rather than just a sense of musicians jamming, but at this point it's way too late. I've lost all interest now and am just waiting for the album to end.
You could be kind and say that this album is a display of pure musical expressionism, or you could be unkind and say it's technical wankery and showoffism (is that a word? It is now) where the players just outdo each other to demonstrate how great they are, what notes they can play, how versatile they can be on their instruments. But whichever is the case, in my opinion it makes for a very sterile and boring album. More to the point, being the solo effort from a keyboard player, I found myself hearing more of the guitar than the keyboard, and that surely can't be good?
Not the greatest start to our new section, certainly, but we had to start somewhere. I think next time though I'll pick an album that has at least some singing on it. This purely instrumental stuff is hard on the old attention, and it's murder to critique. No more Derek Sherinian albums, that's for sure!
TRACKLISTING
1. Five elements
2. Mercury 7
3. Mulholland
4. Euphoria
5. Ghost runner
6. El Camino Diablo
7. I heard that
8. Seven sins
9. Oceana