Alex
Masi
continues his rich musical journey with a “Late Night At Desert
Rimrock”. The album also features his MCM band mate and
former
Yngwie Malmsteen,
Ark
drummer John Macaluso.
“Late Night At Desert Rimrock”
resulted from some informal raw jams between Masi and Macaluso.
These jams saw Masi start on bass guitar playing to grooves laid
down by Macaluso with no preconceived ideas, plans or melody with
spontaneity being the main motivator.
The music of “Late Night At Desert Rimrock” is a wild musical
ride with no specific goal other than “music” itself. The title may
conjure up images of irrational, rabid, hallucinogenic, exploring
drumming and guitar playing and this is indeed how Alex Masi himself
describes the music. Masi’s primary influence for the music was the
universe itself, stating, “Every
piece is a universe in itself...the influence is the desert...my
love of the desert...my love of solitude...my trips around various
deserts and the imaginary and actual encounters...altered mental
states..”.
“Late Night At Desert Rimrock”
may initially shock fans of Masi’s neo-classical output but fans of
Masi’s guitar work will revel in the musicianship, on the direction
Alex comments,
“The new material has no regard for what's expected of me
musically...this album is probably the closest representation
musically of where my head is at right now.” The album was recorded drums and bass first and after a
period of fermentation in his archives Alex then started applying
layers of guitar and various other sounds. The album in total took
a couple of years to complete with other albums and session recorded
in the meantime. Masi wrapped up the album in May 2006.
“Late Night At Desert Rimrock” is not meant to satisfy
any one SPECIFIC fetish but MANY fetishes combined...listen to it as
if your government would not want you to do it!
Brief Bio
Alex Masi is one of the world’s most respected guitarists.
Making his name in the mid 1980’s with the band Masi, winning
a Grammy nomination for 1989’s “Attack Of The Neon
Shark”. In the late 1990’s Alex Masi released the
first in a current trilogy of “In The Name Of…”
recordings of classical works by Bach, Mozart and more
recently Beethoven. 2004 saw a collaboration with John
Macaluso and Randy Coven entitled MCM. Alex Masi has spent the
past couple of years deepening his studies of Indian, Arab and
Persian music, getting more and more involved in the electronica
scene with a possible album of jungle/break beat/insane guitar in
the near future while also recording various sessions for highly
unlikely characters from TOTO's ex singers to Snoop Dogg
to Rahat Ali Khan to some extreme metal people. (for complete
bio please see the Lion Music website).
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