ETTORE SALATI

This month's Artist in Spotlight is Ettore Salati from Italy. Ettore is a sought after session guitarist by many prog musicians not just in Italy but all around the world. He started playing piano at a very young age (mostly classical music) but when he became a teenager and discovered the world of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and 70's rock in general, he was immediately fascinated by guitar... more

KAT EPPLE (Emerald Web)

KAT EPPLE, flautist and composer, is our interview guest this month. She has won 8 Emmy awards, was nominated for a Grammy and she has released 18 albums internationally. Most of you know her as the other half of the legendary ambient/new age duo EMERALD WEB. She has a very large collection (over 200) of flutes that she gathered from all around the world during her travels. Kat composes original New Age/Jazz/World/orchestral music and has produced film scores and television soundtracks for National Geographic, Nova, CNN, Carl Sagan, Another World, The Travel Channel, Turner Broadcasting System, History Channel, HGN, The Guiding Light, PBS, and NASA among others, and was Music Director for the feature-length film, Captiva Island. She also owns a record company and works on both sides of the music industry as a musician and as a business woman... more

New Grass Revival / On The Boulevard

New Grass Revival are one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass. Formed in 1971 by Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals), Curtis Burch (guitar), Ebo Walker (bass) and Courtney Johnson (banjo), they immediately got the attention from the industry both in a good and bad way. First of all, they were often told that their music was not bluegrass, and they knew it wasn’t “bluegrass” in its traditional sense, and it wasn’t what they were trying to achieve anyways. They were blending rock, soul and blues rhythms with the traditional bluegrass music. They were not wearing suites, but instead they had a more casual style along with long hair... more

Serj Tankian / Elect the Dead / Limited Edition

The highly anticipated first solo album from System Of A Down's innovative vocalist has finally arrived. Elect the Dead is everything we hoped it would be. It doesnt just break down the barriers of industry norm, it obliterates them. Tankian's approach to song-writing is a study in masterful composition. If you buy this album expecting the next SOAD album, you will be in for a big surprise as this is not a followup to System's chart topper "Hypnotize", instead this is the next level of evolution in the creative mind of Serj Tankian.

The album is riddled with interesting melody lines and counter-point layers that will be sure to please the prog listener. Taking notes from Yes' Jon Anderson school of recording, Serj plays most of the instruments on this disc. Contributions from Nicholas Fournier, John & Brain Dolmayan, Dan Monti, Diran Noubar and Antonio Pontarelli complete this work of art. On the one hand, this album is a battle ram of metal, on the other hand it is a groundbreaking lesson in world music as heard on Saving Us and Lie Lie Lie with Armenian opera singer Ani Maldjian. The introduction of cultural music isnt the only thing making it a progressive "must have", as Serj has also integrated classical flavors from Cameron Stone's Cello & Pontarelli's violin.

Having made my decision prior to the release that I would do whatever I had to in order to get the Limited Edition, I was already aware of the bonus tracks, which in my opinion are nice, but certainly not worth the extra expense. However, what IS worth the extra expense is the quality packaging the discs come in along with the poetry & art inside the high quality book-like binding. The back of the book has a special card with code for online content that instructs me to go to serjtankian.com to unlock some goodies...

WELL worth the $24.99. Cool videos, extras, etc, but the video with a humorous "interview" with Serj is the highlight of the visit. I travelled an hour-and-a-half to track down a Limited Edition release which seemed to be only carried by Best Buy exclusively (maybe I'm wrong about that, but it was certainly my experience). For an outspoken political advocate and rebel icon screaming at us fans to buck the establishment, Serj sure knows how to utilize that dreaded system. He's no slouch when it comes to business, I'm just left questioning the social implications of a CD released in such a fashion by an artist who wrote "The causes of ineptitude can be traced to my mandatory down. The causes of my servitude can be traced to the tyranny of Money - all for money". A strong charge for society change from the singer who once told us to "F#@% the system" - but make no mistake, he knows how to USE the same system, and why not? It's the American way.

My only complaint about Elect The Dead, and why I'm giving it 4.5 stars instead of 5, is that the songs lack extended pieces of music. Dont get me wrong, Serj is a great vocalist and if anybody deserves to be listened to as an instrument it is him, but does he have to occupy every single open space of music? It dawned on me after about the 4th track that I wasnt hearing any guitar solos or musical breaks without vocals. Instead of taking a minimalist mindset to the music, Serj treated each interlude as a blank canvas on which to lay some vocal pieces on. While it was refreshing to not hear Daron (Serj's co-singer & guitarist in System of a Down), it was a bit much to hear nothing BUT Serj on every second of music. Even with that said, you simply must get out of the house to go get this CD pronto.

Dale JUDAY