The art of guitar playing leapt forward exponentially in the latter half or the 20th century… and then seemed to kind of stall. Of course, out of the headlines, and in the background, there have been revolutionary artists labouring away mostly in obscurity the whole time, pushing the art forward… What I’ve noticed is that guitar (or electric guitar, at least) seems to be most exciting when guitarists are trying to make it sound like something other than a guitar, or take their influences from something other than guitar-centric music…
If you haven’t already, check out the guitar (and ensemble) playing on this instrumental by Polyphia. It is a really incredible piece of music. Some might say it is “Eruption” for the current generation of guitar players…
What I found really interesting is where the inspiration came from this piece of music came from. The main songwriter and guitarist from the band, Tim Henson breaks it down here. It is also really interesting the role that technology plays in all of this:
This is great stuff @ColdRoomStudio I enjoyed listening, this guy is innovative and talented. He’s mainly using midi which has been a very useful technology for many years but put to good use here. Also interesting that he is inspired by rap rhythms. Thanks for posting this!
I thought you might like this! The idea of working something out in midi first, and then transferring it to a real performance is a bit of lateral thinking. When you think about it, modern classical and film composers do this all the time, but here he has used it to challenge himself to get new and innovative sounds and techniques out of “traditional” rock band instruments.
It is indeed virtuosic, but I really like the way the virtuosity serves the ensemble and the ultimate musical end.
Really cool music in that video. The musicianship was entertaining!
I also loved the video being shot in a church. The visuals of churches and graveyards are great for creating a mood in videos and TV. Especially the grandiose, gothic ones!
It’s been some years, but I think DragonForce employed that quite well. They had a MIDI guru in the band, and at times it was hard to tell what was blazing MIDI riffs and what was bombastic guitar shredding. I became fascinated with that, but never did anything with it. This kind of stimulates that same line of thinking.
