THE ARISTOCRATS
Beller, Govan and Minnemann’s terrific trio do it again.
Even within prog’s rarefied realm, instrumental fusion’s a pretty niche affair. So it’s something to cherish when a band bring a twist to the genre and really connect with an audience. Honourable mentions then to Chon, to Animals As Leaders, to The Fierce And The Dead, and – somewhere very near the top of the heap – The Aristocrats.
Over the past eight years Guthrie Govan, Bryan Beller and Marco Minnemann’s gutsy, funny and virtuosic chemistry has clearly struck a chord. You only have to look at their dizzying US tour schedule coming up over July and August, or the fact they’ve just hosted the Aristocamp – a three-day music clinic in New York with Chad Wackerman and Francis Dunnery among the special guests. This supergroup’s USP – licks, tunes and personality in spades – is like catnip to their loyal following, and their fourth record contains more of what they do best.
Recorded in the plush Brotheryn Studios in Ojai,
California, You Know What…? might be their best-sounding record to date, with some really smart and subtle production enhancing the trio’s dynamic interplay, which has never been sharper and more intuitive. Their taste for fun titles is still a joy, and they still gleefully subvert expectations. Opener
D Grade Fuck Movie Jam starts as a pleasingly sordid wah-wah workout worthy of its name, but clever melodic motifs emerge amid the maelstrom, elevating it way above jam-band widdle.
Ever-promiscuous in style, they knock off towering metal (Terrible Lizard) and galloping rock (The Ballad Of Bonnie
And Clyde) with ease. Spanish Eddie draws on flamenco-style scales and rhythms, When We All Come Together is hypercountry, as Govan chicken-picks on guitar and banjo alike, out-twangs Duane Eddy and the band interweave jazz wows amid the yee-haws. All Said And Done opens with deceptively fiddly bass from Beller, and sees them turn their hand to a straight(ish), lyrical mid-tempo piece à la Beller and Minnemann’s regular tour boss, Joe Satriani.
Minnemann’s solo records are eccentric affairs, and his quirky fingerprints are all over Spiritus Cactus, with its machine-like rhythm, castanet flourishes and off-the-wall melodies. Burial At Sea is jazzy and mysterious, while bluesy Last Orders veers from silence to sonic tumult, closing the trio’s most accomplished album to date.
Niche it may be, but it’s hard to think of another instrumental group making this sort of noise with this sort of gusto to anywhere near this level. Like the band, this record’s fun, listenable, and bursting with character and sheer musical brilliance. You know what? The Aristocrats are peerless.
BURSTING WITH CHARACTER AND SHEER MUSICAL BRILLIANCE.