Alex
Masi
continues his rich musical journey with a “Late Night At Desert
Rimrock”. The album also features his MCM band mate and former
Yngwie
Malmsteen,
Ark drummer
John Macaluso.
“Late Night At Desert
Rimrock” resulted
from some informal raw jams between Masi and Macaluso. These jams saw
Masi start on bass guitar playing to grooves laid down by Macaluso with
no preconceived ideas, plans or melody with spontaneity being the main
motivator.
The music
of “Late Night At Desert Rimrock” is a wild musical ride with no
specific goal other than “music” itself. The title may conjure up
images of irrational, rabid, hallucinogenic, exploring drumming and
guitar playing and this is indeed how Alex Masi himself describes the
music. Masi’s primary influence for the music was the universe
itself, stating, “Every piece is a universe in
itself...the influence is the desert...my love of the desert...my love
of solitude...my trips around various deserts and the imaginary and
actual encounters...altered mental states..”.
“Late
Night At Desert Rimrock”
may initially shock fans of Masi’s neo-classical output but fans of
Masi’s guitar work will revel in the musicianship, on the direction Alex
comments, “The
new material has no regard for what's expected of me musically...this
album is probably the closest representation musically of where my head
is at right now.”
The album was recorded drums and bass first and after a period of
fermentation in his archives Alex then started applying layers of guitar
and various other sounds. The album in total took a couple of
years to complete with other albums and session recorded in the
meantime. Masi wrapped up the album in May 2006.
“Late
Night At Desert Rimrock” is not meant to satisfy any one SPECIFIC
fetish but MANY fetishes combined...listen to it as if your government
would not want you to do it!
Brief
Bio
Alex Masi is one of the world’s most respected
guitarists. Making his name in the mid 1980’s with the band
Masi, winning a Grammy nomination for 1989’s “Attack Of
The Neon Shark”. In the late 1990’s Alex Masi released the
first in a current trilogy of “In The Name Of…” recordings
of classical works by Bach, Mozart and more recently
Beethoven. 2004 saw a collaboration with John Macaluso and
Randy Coven entitled MCM. Alex Masi has spent the past couple of
years deepening his studies of Indian, Arab and Persian music, getting
more and more involved in the electronica scene with a possible album of
jungle/break beat/insane guitar in the near future while also recording
various sessions for highly unlikely characters from TOTO's ex
singers to Snoop Dogg to Rahat Ali Khan to some extreme
metal people. (for complete bio please see the Lion Music website).
