Label: Unsigned

Producer: Robert Sadowski and Nik Chinboukas

Release Date: 2005

Artist/Composer Robert Sadowski (Zenen, Brother Mustard) and Producer Nik Chinboukas (Mimi Ferocious, Zenen, Dr Chud, Chris Caffery, Blow up Hollywood).. what a thoroughly brilliant working combination! Fusing intermittent darkish melancholic guitar-dominated rock themes with some of the most intriguing and vibrant melodic meanderings, these guys have managed to come up with something very very special indeed!

Submersible opens the album up like a kind of audio feng shui for your consciousness! I haven't heard wah and distortion fx like this since the analog pedals stepped sideways for the likes of Frank Zappa, and Jimi Hendrix and ended up leaving us all in a right state! Rob's guitar playing is truly exceptional and a second doesn't go by without your WOW factor breaching the triple plus mark on the scale you thought was set for life! It's an easy going kinda-casually ear-exploiting track and with some clever bass and percussion strewn around your headspace... you are in for a real treat!

Transmit arrives with a sweep of blitzing chords around a progressive rock collage of beautifully played and realized riffs until the exotic keyboards take you to that nice little island in the sun. UK band Traffic were brilliant at doing this kind of thing but Rob brings the tradition into the new millenia with seemingly effortless ease. Watch out for the short burst of bell tower of riffs that arrive at around the 4.25 mark!

Clockwork is the more meditative, 7 minute long thought and emotion ringing track that you might not have expected to follow 'Transmit' but were immensely grateful that it did! With some very nice Floyd-esque 'Meddle era' progressions, this particular track enjoys a warmth that only Rob and Nik could call their own! I love the bass playing and the percussion strides that work synchronously together to please you to oblivion! At around the 2.50 mark the track becomes very industrious and sparks all kinds of images most notably the very innovative kind!

25mg is welcome to the globally appreciated pleasure rooms music. With an almost chilled down and laid back rhythmic pace set with guitar, keys, and beautifully arranged percussive treatments, the remarkably skilled guitar playing reminds you of how important Rob Sadowski is in the grand association of guitar veteranologists. Little Strat-styled riffs that would have made Hendrix feel like he'd been walking on water are spread firmly throughout this lovely offering just enough to make you wish your third guitar was a 69 Stratocaster just like Jimi's. Seizure meanwhile, takes the listener to those parts of the imagined city scapes formally perused by the likes of Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream fame and by David Gilmour to widespread critical acclaim! The startlingly striding percussion and repetitive bass lines make way for some of the best new-age styled guitar I have heard in a very long time.

The sixth track Crush Proof Box .. features the kind of reversed audio insert opening that we all spent many euphoric hours wondering about until our attention is paralyzed by some really true-to-scheme rock riffs played with authority and elegance. Rob has presented us with quite an epitaph in this nicely arranged track and, like in 'Clockwork' we see a whole load of genre types being exploited for the common good! Going Home is the final track that brings this album reluctantly to an end just at the point where we're all hungry for more! The guitar characterizations that we've seen gracing our ears throughout this album are given pride of place in 'Going Home' and it's not difficult to see why this was an excellent choice of ending. In concert, this would be the progressive rock fret board meandering masterpiece that doesn't leave you.. EVER!

Mind Capsule is by far a very elegant and intellectually stimulating piece of work that deserves the kind of praise and appreciation afforded all those Hall of Fame guitarists that we just love to pay tribute to. If you are wondering what on earth you've been doing with your CD collection lately.. add Mind Capsule to it if only to sweep the accumulated cobwebs away and return it to it's former glory!

 

CD Reviews

IOM Magazine

Related