New music

You Know What…?

Genre-dodging virtuosos deliver fourth album The Aristocrats, in the guise of fearsome instrumental talents Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller and Marco Minnemann, have carved out a unique niche for themselves since delivering their first album in 2011. The problem comes when you are tasked with defining exactly what that niche is. To call their music ‘jazz-fusion’ or ‘rock’ is far from hitting the bullseye. There’s too much humour in the music to pass it off as being jazz fusion, and yet there are certainly elements of that genre present. And rock is far too all-encompassing a term in any case. So how do we pin the tail on this particular donkey? Let’s inspect the goods… Track titles such as the opener D Grade

Fuck Movie Jam moving on to Terrible Lizard and Spiritus Cactus don’t offer up much of a clue, other than a sense of humour, so maybe we should just try to describe the music. Would it help if we say that Spanish

Eddie could pass as the theme from a psychedelic western? Or that Burial At Sea possibly details a ceremony carried out at midnight by a bunch of ghoulish gangsters? Probably not. One thing’s for certain, though; the only thing you can expect from an Aristocrats release is the unexpected. Here the band swing gymnastically through nine tracks of controlled mayhem with some explosive guitar moments from Govan, ever the stylistic chameleon. It’s joyful stuff and guaranteed to put a smile on your face. [DM] Standout track: Last Orders For fans of: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai