Put three super talented musicians together, preferably with a great dose of humour, remove all the rules and you get The Aristocrats. Guthrie Govan (guitar), Marco Minnemann (drums) and Bryan Beller (bass) have been making music together for 10 years. The band returned to the studio five years after their last album and Marco Minnemann arrived with a song about a duck. The gentlemen looked at each other and decided to make a concept album with songs about that duck. That became Duck. "Duck is the story of a web-footed Antarctic Island native fleeing a penguin policeman all the way to New York City... where considerable misadventure and danger await." Translate that to instrumental music. No problem for The Aristocrats. Duck is an album that exudes fun playing. Three virtuosos together can create quite an ego clash, but not with these three. Everything is right here, they divide the songs, each wrote three, and within each song each band member is given the space to excel. And they do this without getting in each other's way for a single moment. With The Aristocrats, crazy song titles are never far away: Hey, Where's MY Drink Package?. Sittin' With A Duck on A Bay, And Then There Were Just Us / Duck's End and This is Not Scrotum are a few great examples. Examples that all sound great. Violinist Rusanda Panfili plays on the last title. This is certainly a special song that starts as a Mahavishnu Orchestra track and turns into an Eastern European waltz. This is one of those albums that you really need to blast from your speakers. It sounds great! OK, it may not be nice for your neighbours, but you will be listening with a big grin on your face. ***** Arne van Os van den Abeelen, edit by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen Where to buy? |
