The mortal enemy of the CD reviewer is the one man band. On one level, their solitary craft mirrors how we listen to music-alone in a dirty room with dirty clothes and wires everywhere. But once you get past that affinity there is the problem of thin, digital sound, brittle drum machines, and interplay that hesitates when it should go for the throat. That is not so for the debut release of Eddy Grandjean, a young graduate from the Music Academy International who has recorded 6 shred-sculptures for the Musea label. Playing bass, drums, and guitars almost equally well, Eddy must've given himself many a callous during the recording of this instrumental debut. Although the press release calls out Joe Satriani and Steve Vai by name, Eddy Grandjean has yet to reach neither the virtuosity nor soulless showmanship of those guitarists. His best work seems more reminiscent of a cyborg Steve Howe from the future, with the same love of looking for variations within a juicy sequence for added emphasis and a refreshing willingness to preserve the emotion over the technique. His playing is by no means perfect around the three minute mark of "These Girls Love Me", but leaving such almost imperceptible mistakes in is part of the joy of music. On his Part two, I hope he displays some variety and songwriting to go along with these monstrous jams, but until then there's no shame in an album of this caliber.
Track Listing
1. Atomic Notion
2. Occidental Sky
3. Paris, France
4. Guitar Dreams
5. Nightmares of War
6. These Girls Love Me
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