“Our past is simultaneeus with the presentas the future has entirely surpassed,
dimension symmetry are as one…
can it be between our exisitance, the violet horizon…”
- Rob Balducci
And so starts the journey into the Rob Balducci’s newest CD Violet Horizon. Words worth pondering from a bold Musician, Artist and Guitarist. The words come from the inside cover of the CD. The 4th CD from The Favored Nations Artist is an instrumental journey one will play again and again.Balducci takes his listeners through a musical journey of ups and downs.
Beginning with the title track “Violet Horizon” it has some smooth cool tones, then moves into “Friction”. “Friction” will smack you in the mouth with it's wild leads and tones. The song gives the feeling of driving a race car with the gas pedal pushed to the floor and hitting the breaks at the same time, it’s a wild ride through some good musical effects.
The songs all have that Rob Balducci’s sigature on them, you will make no mistake when listening to the CD that this is Rob Balducci…at his best. In the song “The Essence”, Balducci uses his signature vibrato work that he is known for along with some old and new school soloing.
“Liquid Soul” does just that. It turns your soul to liquid. Balducci uses his guitar techniques to drive some hard edge licks and then makes you feel like the music world has turned to liquid. The phrasing, licks and chops are simply amazing to listen to.
Balducci slows it all back down again with some old school blues in the song “Trinity” adding of course some slick vibrato and switching between clean tones and effects. I felt the phrasing in this song was some of the best on the CD. Literally one that I could listen to over and over.
The Song “Float” takes you through some well done chorus effects that actually gives the feeling of floating. Slow and easy it’s a good song that will have a calming effect on you.
“My Desire”, another favorite of mine. It just has some nice grooves and the phrasing again it is spectacular.
Two thumbs up on “Bal’s Grove Thing”, I just loved hearing the old school blues with Rob’s signature tone on them. I feel like he really captured the essence of the blues grooves on this one. Nice clean tones with the flavor of Balducci written all over it.
“Shine” has a most origional groove to it. The rhythm had my head bobbing up and down, the leads had it moving back and forth. A very soulful, bright sounding song.
“Sleekstack” could easily be the star of the CD. With a guest solo from Guthrie Govan. Rob Balducci fuses a dark metal beat with his leads. It works and it works well. The song again has the signature of Balducci. The tones, effects, groove and vibrato make it an accomplished piece of work.
Another guest soloist Dave Weiner adds some cool flavor to “Devil’s Juice”. Weiner Gives the song a fantastic rhythm, Balducci again adds his signature to the song.
I think that the new CD from Rob Balducci is easily his best work to date. Keeping pace with what his fans expect from his work yet putting a touch to it that should attract loads of new listeners. Violet Horizon will be in my collection for many years to come.
Track List:
- Violet Horizon
- Friction
- Devil's Juice (Guest sol Dave Weiner)
- The Essence
- Liquid Soul
- Shape Shifter
- Trinity
- Choke
- Float (I Remember...)
- My Desire
- Bal's Groove "Thang"
- Shine
- Sleestack (Guest Solo Guthrie Govan)
- Viloet Horizon - Reprise
- ILU 9-5 (Bonus Track)
A micro site for Rob Balducci’s CD Violet Horizon at http://www.robbalducci.com/violethorizon/ on the site you can hear 3 of the songs fron the CD. There is also video of Balducci explaining the concept of each song what they mean to him.
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