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Planet X
Instrumental progressive rock solo album from ex-Dream Theater keyboardist, Derek Sherinian. I snapped up their first CD when it first came out because it has Australia's greatest drummer and guitarist (Virgil Donati and Brett Garsed) on it.
Self Titled (1999)
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 Rank: 3 guitars out of 5 Was ok |
| Reviewer: lach (96) |
First off, the mix is weird. Not crap, but weird. Maybe because it's a keyboardists solo album and not a guitar album, and I'm expecting it to be so. But I would have really prefered the guitars to be cranked a lot higher. As a result a lot of the music doesn't really have a stand out melody in it. It might have lots of glimpes of melodies or ideas, but nothing really concrete. As a result it's very interesting, but never fully enveloping. Track four "Crab Nebulae" is a good example of this. What could be a really great song ends up sounding like a jam. Bummer! One thing that makes this music quite different to a lot of other progressive rock is that it's quite a-tonal. Lots of weird chords and notes that don't fit - purposely. It's ok, but I'm not a huge fan. Track seven "Day in the Sun" is a great track, but could be so much better if it had a better mix - something strange has happened. Crank up the damn guitar when it's playing the melody! I quite enjoy track nine "Space Martini" - especially Donati's drumming which (as usual) is superb. However it needs to have the freaking guitar louder. Arghghg! Clocking in at a weak 48 minutes.. not too impressed. But it's still a very interesting CD with some nice music on it. Great example of what can be accomplished after you've been kicked out of a band! My ranking: 3 - Was ok |
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Universe (2000)
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Rank: 3 guitars out of 5 Was ok |
| Reviewer: lach (96) |
Derek must have thought that he was onto a good thing, so he grabbed Tong Macalpine (guitar) and Virgil Donati (drums) and formed this band. The result is 11 tracks of instrumental atonal rock. Well for a start, the guitars are cranked, and the opening is possibly the loudest that I have out of ALL CD's that I own. Not a bad effort, really. The production is really very good. The music is a lot more hairy and crazy, and a bit more focused. However it's also a lot more atonal, which makes a lot of bits hard to enjoy. This is probably my favourite Planet X CD. There's a couple of very cool tracks on here, with some amazing playing. But.. there's just something that I can't quite grasp. Can't these guys pick a key/mode and go with it? They seem determined to make the music as silly/complicated as possible, and as a result the enjoyability and listenability suffers greatly. Now I've tried enjoying it, believe me. I've listened a lot to this album. Quite, quite a lot. Well, maybe that's what it's all about. I don't know. I have a strange love/hate relationship with this music. Sometimes I'm hanging for it, sometimes I want to smash the damn thing up. So I dunno. Definitely interesting! Anyway, this one is 56 mins long. A bit better. My ranking: 3 - Was ok |
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Moonbabies (2002)
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 Rank: 2 guitars out of 5 Didn't enjoy it |
| Reviewer: lach (96) |
More of the same. Hairy atonal instrumental progressive rock. Not bad. Enjoyed "Universe" a lot more though. This album sounds a bit like "Let's string together 3000 complicated riffs". For example, there's an atonal bass solo half-way through the opening track? It just sounds ridiculous. Fusion heads might dig it but it doesn't do anything for me. I note that they still haven't found a full-time bass player prepared to join the band. Can't imagine why. Donati still cements himself as the finest drummer in the world. He even wrote half of these tracks - how many other drummers can say the same? Favourite track is definitely the last "Ignotus Per Ignotium". The linear artwork is a scream. Derek and Viril come off as gender-bending goths. Macalpine looks ok though. My ranking: 2 - Didn't enjoy it |
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