Compression Review by Gary Hill Billy Sheehan is a bass legend, and, of course the bass work on this disc is very very good. Interestingly enough, so is the guitar, drums and vocal work. Even more interesting about that is the fact that Sheehan is responsible for the majority of that as well.
The bass guitar is an instrument whose players are often overlooked, relegated to playing the rhythm hidden behind guitar heroes, singers and keyboard wizards. A few bassists have managed to put together chops and performances that allow them to rise above this status.
Prime Cuts Review by Steve Alspach Ever play a bass guitar? "Strings" are a misnomer - they use great big, fat, wires. You have to work up some muscle in your fingers to aptly play a bass.
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Interviews
Billy Sheehan Interview by Gary Hill Interview With Billy Sheehan From 2000
Explorer's Club - Age of Impact Review by Gary Hill This album could well be the most important progressive disc of the decade for two reasons. Firstly, by the sheer magnitude of performers on this CD.
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Glenn Tipton - Baptizm of Fire Review by Gary Hill This first solo album by Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton is a fine piece of work. It takes the Priest sounds one expects to find here and updates them, bringing new angles and directions to them.
Glenn Tipton - Baptizm of Fire Remaster Review by Gary Hill The debut solo album (first one released, not the first one recorded) by Glenn Tipton has just been reissued with two new tracks added on to the lineup. Since I reviewed the original release of the album, the majority of this review will be drawn and modified from that review.
Niacin - Deep Review by Gary Hill This album captures a nice retro and jazzy sort of prog texture. It does this, almost completely, without the addition of guitar and vocals.
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Various Artists - Drum Nation Vol. 2 Review by Gary Hill The concept is simple but unique: put together a number of tracks from various artists showcasing influential and potent drummers. This was the concept for Magna Carta's first drum nation CD, and they continue it here - why mess up a good thing?
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This various artists collection was assembled by Brian Tarquin. He's a guitar player who really seems to have a reverence for great guitar playing in all its various forms.
Bassinvaders - Hellbassbeaters Review by Mike Korn Pity the poor bass! Although it has its loyal devotees, it very much takes a back seat to its big brother, the lead guitar.
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The Winery Dogs are back, and I couldn’t be more excited.It has been almost eight years since I saw them on stage, and I was lucky to catch them on this your for their latest release III.
Niacin - Live In Tokyo DVD Review by Gary Hill First, for anyone looking at this DVD and wondering, "what's different about this one from Live: Blood, Sweat and Beers that I bought a couple years ago?" - the answer is just the cover and the title, this is the same video.
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Various Artists - Magna Carta Guitar Greats – Volume I Review by Grant Hill These Magna Carta sampler discs serve as a great way for people to sample a number of their releases without having to shell out the cash for each and every one of them. I'd have to say that as these things go, this is one of the better ones – and they are all quite good.
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It is still pretty early in the year, but I'll be surprised if this release doesn't make my "best of 2020" list. The mix of sounds here includes metal, good solid hard rock and plenty of progressive rock.
Terry Bozzio & Billy Sheehan - Nine Short Films Review by Gary Hill Terry Bozzio wrote the lyrics to this and provides all the percussion and keyboard textures. The majority of the guitar sounds on this CD are not truly guitar but keys that sound like guitar provided by Bozzio.
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Niacin - Organik Review by Gary Hill Niacin just keeps getting better. While all their albums are entertaining, the earlier ones seemed to be a little more low key in some ways - leaning more on the smooth jazz than the prog.
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Steve Morse - Prime Cuts Review by Gary Hill Joining Magna Carta's Prime Cuts series is this release of music by Steve Morse. The majority of the material comes from three solo albums of his, Split Decision, Major Impacts 1, and Major Impacts 2.
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Mike Portnoy - Prime Cuts Review by Gary Hill Mike Portnoy now has his own entry in the Magna Carta Prime Cuts collection. This disc, as the rest of the series, features selected tracks from albums that the artist has contributed to, presented here as sort of a slice of some of the best of the work from him.
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Steve Vai - Real Illusions: Reflections Review by Gary Hill It seems Zappa alumni's make some of the most inspired and creative musicians. I suppose that makes sense consider the degree of talent necessary to get into that outfit.
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Vapourspace - Sonic Residue from Vapourspace Review by Steve Alspach Here's an interesting concept - take songs from various releases from a progressive rock record label and let the music be transformed by a techno mix until it's nearly unrecognizable from the original source.
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I generally like things like this where an album is created by taking the track list of a famous album and having different artists reproduce the songs.
The fourth installment in the “This is the Blues” series, this disc has some interesting performances and perhaps the most eclectic and famous group of performers.
Various Artists - Working Man Review by Gary Hill One of the early Magna Carta tribute CD's, this one is definitely not one of their finest. It does have some strong points, though, and the main area in which it is lacking is vocals.
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