01. Ass Whoopin'
02. Ricochet
03. Off The Deep End
04. Whatever
05. Fearless
06. Hooligan's Holiday
07. In The Aftermath
08. Run With It
09. Cupid's Arrow
10. Inner Journey
Jennifer Batten - all Guitars,
keyboards, and programming.
Sandin Wilson (Gino Vanelli band) - Bass.
Andre Berry (David Sanborn, Dave Koz, Chris
Botti) - Bass.
Jon Clark, Debbie Schepp, Bret and Kari
Helm, Ann Marie Crouch, Nel Gerome, Leah
Santos, Sean Dailey - vocal samples.
Skip Vonkuske - Cello.
Nelly Kovalev - Violin.
Betsy Hamilton - Native American flute
Michael Jordan - Drums on Inner Journey.
Produced by Jennifer Batten
Mixed by Nick Moon
Mastered by Chris Bellman
All tracks written by Jennifer except “Inner
Journey” written by Jennifer and Michael
Jordan
Critically acclaimed as one of the most
creative, imaginative and talented
guitarists on the planet and always at the
forefront of technology Jennifer Batten
returns for her third solo album in the
captivating sonic tapestry of “Whatever”.
Released
as a dual pack of CD & DVD the album is
described in style by Jennifer herself as “guitronica”.
The album possesses plenty of guitar, but
“Whatever” is heavily multi textured with a
plethora of sounds and vocal samples, and
has a humorous thread throughout. The music
is also influenced by various ethnic
cultures such as the African vibe in "Off
the Deep End".
On the
albums creation Jennifer comments,
“Originally I started writing a lot of these
tracks for Jeff Beck when I was in his band.
My third CD has been long over due so in the
end I'm happy to have these tracks for
myself! He got me interested in electronica
and I'm very happy to have that as a new
direction with all the amazing inspiring
sounds available today.”
The
included DVD breaks down each video track
with a commentary track by Jennifer which
has formed the brief synopsis of each track
below.
Jennifer
describes the album as "'sort of'
instrumental. There are vocal samples
telling stories in most songs, but not the
standard song type lyrics and melodies. I
played and programmed most of the CD with
the exception of having a few guests."
"Ass
Whoopin'" is a hip hop track featuring the
other guitarist (Jon Clark) on Michael
Jackson's Bad Tour, using a comedic spoken
word character that he often used in 1988
during the tour I was on with him. He tells
a story of the frustrations of buying
electronics in the modern age. For the
second solo I trigger an organ sound with
the guitar synth which came out very jazz
flavoured just due to the sound I used. The
melody is very bendy and snakey.
"Ricochet" is an experimental soundscape
starting with distorted drums and a
multitude of guitar sounds, techniques, and
textures. It's a quirky love song.
"Off the Deep End" is a very African
influenced flavor with a vocal chant from a
tribe of little kids in the intro. It's a
mix of tribal groove and dreamy breathy
synth with Andre Berry's "Jaco-esque" bass
feel. The breakdown goes into a story spoken
by Debbie Schepp (I'm a sucker for the
British accent). I purposely left the story
a little vague so the listener could imagine
any of a variety of situations that she was
describing.
"Whatever" brings the record back to Los
Angeles and gives a pathetic tribute to the
cultural degradation in the language of the
modern youth. They use the word "whatever"
to replace most words in the language, due
to laziness. The song makes use of various
samples of people and accents saying
"whatever". The focus is on total nonsense
surrounded by melody and a whacky guitar
solo.
"Fearless" is my first endeavour back to the
acoustic guitar after many years exclusively
with electric only. The guitar is in an odd
tuning and I have no idea what any of the
notes are. It was just written from sound,
which is very freeing.
"Hooligan's Holiday" is a lyric-less
conversation between the guitar and the
vocal riffs from the singer. It's a sonic
experiment starting with samples of the
horrible ground buzz I was having in the
studio at the time. I decided to just use
the noise and make it musical and percussive
in the intro rather than just give up until
I could get an engineer in to fix it.!
"In the
Aftermath" is the CD's compositional
highlight for me and the first ballad I've
written. It feels like a spiritual adventure
that takes you on a sensual journey.
"Run
With It" is focused on samples from Herman
Begay, a native American singer. It begins
with native flute and also blends
instruments from East Indians as well.
"Cupid's
Arrow" is the story of my best friend
getting married while I was on tour. I
sampled his story of the wedding after my
return and used the best bits for this love
story. There are lots of quirky sounds with
a surprise ending.
"Inner
Journey" may well be the launching pad for
this record. The percussion is based on body
noise samples. This is the comedic highlight
of the CD with a whacky video to match.
Though the title "Inner Journey" sounds like
a spiritual endeavour, it's more like the
inner journey your body takes in digestion.
Most female recording artists use body parts
to promote their music, which has been done
to death, and I find that’s quite lacking in
imagination! I prefer a more creative
shocking attention grabbing angle.
• Jennifer is one of the highest profile
guitarists in the world.
• Jennifer is about to commence a new
tutorial column in Guitar Player magazine,
this will give “Whatever” tremendous
worldwide exposure.
• “Whatever” is released as a twin cd/dvd
pack.
• Teaser promos have already run on youtube
and myspace.
•Jennifer is available for interview, please
contact promo@lionmusic.com
• Custom radio station ID on request