Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Minnemann, Marco
Label: Lazy Bones Recordings
Release date: 01.06.2015
Runtime: 71:07
Rating: 4.5/5
The versatile, hyperactive and brilliant German musician Marco Minnemann isn’t just one of the best drummers in the world. He’s also renowned as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer and even vocalist!
Last year he put out what is surely one of the most interesting and fascinating albums in experimental rock, or rather jazz rock fusion. That’s the solo studio album “EEPS”, which is far from the first in this musician’s colorful solo catalog.
Over his vivid career, Marco Minnemann has worked with a whole constellation of renowned, highly respected musicians. In 2011 he came within a hair’s breadth of becoming Mike Portnoy’s permanent replacement in Dream Theater. Today he plays in the backing bands of Joe Satriani and Steven Wilson, is part of the hellish trio The Aristocrats alongside bassist Bryan Beller and guitarist Guthrie Govan, and of course makes his own music! In the past Marco has also worked with the likes of Buddy Rich Big Band, Necrophagist, Nina Hagen, Kreator, Eddie Jobson, UK and Paul Gilbert. In other words, he’s one of the most thoroughly accomplished all-round drummers and musicians out there.
For the new album “Celebration”, Minnemann kept the same crew around him: the label Lazy Bones Records, plus studio helper and co-producer Scott Schorr. Once again, Marco Minnemann is his own boss. He played and sang everything completely by himself, every last innocent noise caught on tape. Unlike its predecessor »EEPS«, »Celebration« zeroes in on compactness. In places the compositions aren’t as loose and sprawling anymore, and this time Marco paid a touch more attention to tightly structured arrangements. That goes especially for some of the guitar phrases, which are pushed more clearly to the front, and for the tracks where Marco gets more involved with vocals (Greatest Gift in Life, Eclipse), even though he still gives them by far the least attention, which in a musical vision full of provocative, lucid instrumental shenanigans is more than a welcome state of affairs. There are a whopping 18 tracks on the album, so once again there’s music in abundance, and in such a colorful landscape there’s still room for the most off-the-wall, avant-garde, provocative brainwaves, born of this colorful artist’s boundless imagination. So there’s no danger whatsoever of Marco going soft or getting lazy stylistically. In the opener Miami you can feel the euphoria of the big city, which is something Marco wanted to capture and express, while at the same time the track’s compactness carries a whiff of avant-garde jazz rock fusion, where it’s obvious that Marco draws inspiration from the one and only Frank Zappa. Plenty more of these associations pop up later on the album, and the sharp, pointed atonality even conjures moods closer to the newer era of King Crimson. Besides Miami, the tracks where Marco nailed a nice middle path between musical catchiness and jazz rock tricks include Thoughts Take Shape, the sly and dark (vocal) What Have You Done?, and How Can I Help You? Better Place, where the album’s biggest dose of distorted racket kicks in, shows that Marco learned a lot about arranging vocal lines from working with Steven Wilson. With a few tweaks, the track could fit onto one of Steven Wilson’s albums, or even Porcupine Tree’s.
The influences of the artists mentioned above can be heard in the album’s most interesting tracks, which also pack the most unpredictable, experimental, exploratory avant-prog curveballs, like Print Club, Ugly Sunrise, Have a Great 3015 and 4000. Still, the album’s claim to absolute originality and uniqueness is clearly drawn and front and center throughout. A whole cast of playful instruments shakes hands in a spirit of great tolerance, with progressively broken rhythms of a strictly experimental nature ruling the roost, while an active, highly compatible dialogue between guitar and keyboards keeps the album’s dynamic jaggedness alive in a constantly mischievous solo interplay.
It’s an outstanding album, deeply enchanting for anyone looking for something unusual and out of the ordinary in music, with an emphasis on the shock factor of unpredictable twists, created by the free-spirited mindset behind Marco Minnemann’s avant-garde progressive jazz rock vision. With »Celebration«, Marco Minnemann remains a »big kid« who, in a blaze of superior skill, masterfully handles »dangerous toys« in the studio. Of course Minnemann “calms down” when interacting with other musicians, because then he’s “limited” to the drums. But when he goes at it as a solo artist, his musical vision demands absolute “studio solitude”. That means complete isolation from the “interference” of other musicians’ ideas. Only then can a genius brimming with imagination fully express himself through crazy musical tunes and variations and an extraordinary, richly layered instrumental-fusion seasoning. »Celebration« is another outstanding album from Marco Minnemann, and with a bit more arranging compactness it shows this musician’s maturing as a composer. Perfectly natural, and a healthy path of development.
Lineup
Marco Minnemann – all instruments, vocals
Production
Scott Schorr & Marco Minnemann
Track list
1. Miami (3:26)
2. Celebration (2:58)
3. It Always Seems (2:26)
4. March Of The Living Dead (1:55)
5. How Can I Help You? (3:25)
6. What Have You Done? (4:00)
7. Greatest Gift In Life (3:00)
8. Print Club (10:54)
9. Ugly Sunrise (6:44)
10. Everyone Likes A Rainbow (spanish) (1:34)
11. Have A Great 3015 (6:10)
12. 4000 (3:46)
13. Thougts Take Shape (5:20)
14. Everyone Likes A Rainbow (english) (2:23)
15. Eclipse (3:14)
16. Amina’s Birthday (4:16)
17. Better Place (3:43)
18. The Darkness Within You (exclusive bonus track) (1:56)
