MATTIAS
I.A. EKLUNDH - Freak
Guitar: The Road Less Traveled
Freak Guitar: The Road Less Traveled is Mattias 'IA' Eklundh second solo album, the follow up to his highly acclaimed Freak Guitar.
The album opens with The Road Less Traveled, with IA playin' a cool melody with his trademark natural harmonics. A beautiful song to start the dances. Cool jazzy progression and also a gypsy-jazz interlude. IA's style is so original and so inventive.
There's No Money In Jazz starts with some otrageous chromatics... Then a melody played with rapid hammer-ons: such a cool effect. There's no money in jazz, but surely there's fun! Again harmonics and some stange noise too =) The solo has a mysterious vibe...
Print This! is one of my favourite songs... IA makes some stange noises here, soundin' like a printer settin' up... The usual dose of craziness and metal. I love the theme too! There's also a cool interlude played on a nylon strings guitar. This music is food for yer creativity!
Father is a cool, moody track. Very touchy, it reminds me a bit of Buckethead's 'Colma' album... Feel is the right word here.
No Strings Attached is a short percussive song that IA plays with his new 'guitar', the Apple Horn Snake Tongue: it features only one pickup and IA taps his fingers on the top of it to get strange cool tabla like sounds...
Caffeine is a funny song that makes me smile every time I hear it... A sick melody played with microbends. The man sounds like he's been drinkin' too much coffee lately... =) The rhythm is cool too!
Fletch Theme is another great track IMHO... IA manages to reinvent it in his own style... Those fills he plays are just lovely and sooo inventive. I love this guitar monster! =) Cool volume swells.
The Battle Of Bob is the soundtrack to a computer game that IA has invented... So even if there's no game yet, he already has the music for it... BTW, the idea for the game is sooo funny... The music reminds me of Steve Vai's older stuff (à la Flexable), and of course Frank Zappa, one of IA's fave composers and musicians...
Chopstick Boogie is a song IA wrote for drums, and then turned it into a song for guitar. Some sick music, again remindin' a bit Zappa.
Toxic Donald is short percussive track with IA playin' drums with his mouth... his tongue, his teeth and... spits !
Happy Hour is the only vocal song of the album...Very 'FreakKitchen'-ish, a quiet song to break up. =) Cool solo
Smoke On The Water is IA's reinterpretation of the classic by Deep Purple... he changed the tempo of the song, and put his hands on the melody too... I wonder how he manages to play those f@*kin' harmonics sooo smoothly and evenly... I both love him and hate him... =) What a solo! He also fingerpicks a lot in this album!
Insert coin is another short crazyness based on sweeps and strange noises from another galaxy... Is that a guitar???!!!? =o
The Woman In Seat 27A is another slow tempo song. Very very relaxin' track. Great feel and pauses... a song that breathes. Beautiful melodies.
Ketchup Is A Vegetable takes us back to 'metal' with IA's trademark sweeps... The man has a knowledge and mastery of odd tempos that's just incredible... Dig Dream Theatre's wicked tempo changes? You'll adore Mattias then! =)
Samba Caramba is a song that Freak Kitchen fans should already know... it's a solo piece that IA used to play at his concerts, with his guitar on his laps, facin' him... plays it like Jeff Healey would... Beautiful rocky solo. The man has STYLE!!! Oral percussion again in the end.
White Trash Hyper Blues is another of my personal faves... Rock 'n Roll !!!! Love the melody line! Some cool changes in mood too. Amazing ways to variate the way the theme is played too.
Minor Swing is IA's interpretation of a famous Django Reinhardt's improvisation. Another great track full of energy and amazing ideas. Cool arrangement for horns, made by the amazingly talented Niklas Ottosson.
Asterois 3834 is dedicated to Frank Zappa and is, as you would expect, very inspired by the Baltimore genius.
Little Bastard has another good riff that will groove you. Beautiful 'chorus'. Even little bastards have a soul. But for the most part they're still bastards... =) Cool ending.
Difficult Person Music is a funny little outro to the album.
Every time I hear Mattias I'm amazed.
The guy has it all: melodies, rhythm diversity, technique, sense of
humour, crazy tricks, and he's funny and a very cool person. Get this
album, get all of his albums and you won't be disappointed.
One of the few guitarists to clearly have a PERSONAL STYLE.
Rating: 10
(reviewed by Max)