Tamas, Jonas: Timeless Hour

If I tell you that Timeless Hour is a guitar led instrumental album, you will I'm sure immediately think of Joe Satriani or Steve Vai - and you'd be partly right in describing what Hungarian six-string searer Jonas Tamas has served up with his second album Timeless Hour. So what would make the picture complete? Well a dollop of Jon Pertucci, a sniff of Yngwie Malmsteen and the restraint of David Gilmour, or even Mark Knopfler should go some way to illustrating that not only can Tamas shred and burrrn, but also that restraint and subtlety are also unusually and pleasantly high on the Hungarian's priority list. What that leads to is a mixture of songs that never really suffer for the lack of vocals, without ever really feeling the need to fill that space with a million notes tumbling forth all at once. Tamas instead would rather say more with less and while he isn't afraid to widdle frantically across his fretboard, he is far more likely to coax a soulful and beautifully melodic theme from his guitar, with the fragile and emotional "Farewell" being a perfect example. If however it is the more frantic, but no less song based Satriani mode that you hanker after, then skip on one track to "Borderline" for a manic and dramatic romp through throaty riffs and blistering solos. However like before this is no excuse for "look at me" time, with the song merely being embellished by the jaw-dropping guitar pyrotechnics, rather than being dominated by them. And it is a theme which carries right across this gently eclectic album with the likes of "Space Walk" being a semi-acoustic strum-fest, while "Debate" is more akin to Prog Metal. Impressively Tamas is equally comfortable in whichever setting he chooses to immerse himself in.

Not only is Jonas's plank-spanking skill given the Steve Vai seal of approval, by being available through the latter's Digital Nations division of Favoured Nations Records, but Tamas is also linked with Jan Cyrka's through his Jam Track Central. If confirmation was needed however that this is one young guitarist who has captured the imagination of his peers, then a guest list including Troy Stetina, Mats Haugen (Circus Maximus), Andy James, Brett Garsed (Planet X), Mattias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen), Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged), Thorsten Koehne (Eden's Curse), Mischa Mang (ex-Dreamscape) and a new keyboard wizard from Estonia, Sergey Boykov - should confirm that.

This is usually the stage where reviewers say that they "don't usually like instrumental albums, but this one is an exception". Well I DO like instrumental albums, however it is still a welcome surprise to discover a young, fresh guitar talent in this genre, who has incredible touch, tone and poise, as well as power, passion and potency. Tamas really does have the lot and I'm hoping that Timeless Hour is just the beginnings of a long and equally fruitful career.

Track Listing
1. Rules Of Thumb
2. Debate
3. All Night Pass
4. The Unbreakable
5. Chance
6. Platinum
7. Farewell
8. Borderline
9. Space Walk
10. My Mind Is Up

Added: December 7th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Jonas Tamas Official Web Site
Hits: 2254
Language: english

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