Plini – ‘The End Of Everything’ [Review]

Instrumental guitar EPs shouldn’t sound like this. They should be awful, self-indulgent shitfests full of pointless musical masturbation. They definitely should not be beautiful, glorious, or epic.

On The End of Everything, Plini has done everything wrong.

Take the drums, for instance. They should be

Steven Wilson – ‘Hand. Cannot. Erase.’ [Review]

In today’s world of shuffled playlists and single-track cherry picking, there still remain artists firmly committed to the album as valid self-expression format. The progressive rock world is home to a good many of those individuals – and within that world, Steven Wilson’s name carries a lot of weight.

Given Wilson’s status as a prog-rock luminary and the calibre of his backing band (Guthrie Govan on guitar; Nick Beggs on bass; Adam Holzman on keys; Marco Minnemann on drums; and Theo Travis on sax and flute), it goes without saying that

The Aristocrats – ‘Culture Clash Live!’ [Review]

Given that Marco Minnemann’s EEPS was TMMP’s #2 album of 2014, the fact that I love Culture Clash Live! to pieces is probably not that much of a surprise.

For the uninitiated, the Aristocrats are one of the fusion community’s hottest tickets right now. A power trio comprising lead drummist Minnemann, lead bassist Bryan Beller, and axe-wielding maniac Guthrie Govan, the Aristocrats’ collective moniker is synonymous with

TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2014

The “death of the album” has been declared many times in recent years – but nonetheless, musicians keep making them and are showing no signs of stopping (and thank God for that!). Almost a decade and a half into the twenty-first century, there still exist bands and artists capable of composing immersive, engaging, and fully satisfying collections of songs that stand up to repeated, unshuffled listens. Here are fifteen of them.

Nick Johnston – ‘Atomic Mind’ [Review]

Over the past few decades, the instrumental guitar community has done little to silence its critics, the “It’s all just wanking over a lame backing track” lot. With Atomic Mind, Nick Johnston is coming to the rescue – and his efforts definitely deserve acknowledgement.

Backed up by two of the ever-classy Aristocrats in Marco Minnemann and Bryan Beller (and inviting third fusion luminary Guthrie Govan to share the spotlight during Silver Tongued Devil), Nick Johnston infuses every note with character and soul – which is an impressive feat considering just how many notes get pumped through your headphones over the course of Atomic Mind‘s ten tracks. This is instrumental music, after all – but there’s still no sense of ego-gratifying profligacy, provided you can hear fast enough. Instead, Johnston, Minnemann, and Beller brew up consistently moving and hard-grooving sketches that grow on you with each listen.

Anika Nilles – ‘Chary Life’ [Review]

Since I reviewed Marco Minnemann’s latest album EEPS, I’ve become more and more intrigued by the world of drumming and rhythm. Lush harmonies, hooky melodies, and touching lyricism are all great things – but a great groove makes you want to move, and gets your body as well as your mind engaged. Traditional songwriting usually appeals to the intellect, but it’s rhythm that really connects with the heart – aka the body’s rhythmic centre.

Marco Minnemann – ‘EEPS’ [Review]

If I’d recorded my reaction to this album’s opening bars, it’d be viral on YouTube by now. You have to ask: How does this guy do it? Most drummers would struggle with that very first high-speed drum flourish, let alone everything that follows. Let’s get stuck in.

Cheap As Fuck And Awesome As Hell sounds like Jeff Beck at his finest. The guitar is brutally tortured, notes squeezed to within an inch of their lives, there’s a super-cool keyboard line and some immense effects, and it all adds up to a fusion tour-de-force that, you’d assume, was created by a group of virtuosi working in collaborative harmony.

Only…it isn’t. On EEPS, Marco Minnemann plays everything. Everything. Vinnie Colaiuta may well be known as “The Alien”, but maybe it’s time that nickname jumped ship.

Marco Minnemann [Interview]

Given his status as one of the world’s top drummers, it’s safe to say that Marco Minnemann is a bit of a legend. Whether drumming for Joe Satriani, recording and performing as one third of The Aristocrats alongside Guthrie Govan and Bryan Beller, or working with the likes of Jordan Rudess, Tony Levin, Alex Machacek, Mike Keneally, Terry Bozzio, Nina Hagen, Necrophagist, Kreator, Buddy Rich Big Band, and Steven Wilson, Marco never fails to bring his A-game to each and every project he throws himself into. While most players would be content to hit one of the above achievements and then rest on their laurels, Marco Minnemann is clearly not.

In addition to his long list of collaborative victories, Marco Minnemann is also an immensely talented solo artist in his own right. On his latest release, EEPS – which drops today, and can be previewed and ordered via the links at the end of this post – Marco wrote and performed every note and lyric and even got involved with the production, alongside Lazy Bones Recordings head honcho Scott Schorr. In an increasingly DIY-oriented industry, Marco Minnemann is showing every up-and-coming solo artist exactly how it’s done.

In our very first Artist Interview, Marco tells TMMP about EEPS, the future, and the importance of good sex.

Marco Minnemann – ‘OC DC’ [Review]

If experiments this wild were performed on people, the individuals responsible would be locked away. Happily, though, Marco Minnemann has chosen to restrict his boundless curiosity and dizzyingly inventive sense of creativity to the world of music – and the result is a glorious piece of genre-splicing audio terrorism that’s warmed my heart and dropped my brain cells into a sea of inspired bliss. The really crazy thing? This is just one track from Marco’s upcoming solo album, EEPS!

A Guide To Project RnL – Part Two

Welcome to Part Two of The Musical Melting Pot’s Guide To Project RnL! Click here for Part One, where we looked at Project RnL’s YouTube-based output to date. This time around, we’ll be looking at the extracurricular work of Project RnL’s core members: keyboardist Eyal Amir, and vocalist Ray Livnat.