Exposé Online banner

Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

Reviews

Scott McGill — Awareness
(Uniblab no#, 2006, CD)

by Jeff Melton, Published 2007-03-01

Awareness Cover art

Guitarist Scott McGill’s newest recording is an updated forum for recently acquired song stylings that mesh well with his acclaimed technical proficiency. Across twelve new tracks McGill continues to forage a fusion forest of tricky riffs, ambient textures, and sick unison phrases supporting that important next step: establishing a singular artist identity. The first two tracks set the balanced attack for the entire disc, with “Ate the Bed” stomping through a hefty blues and "OISSC" portraying a quick tempo for the trio with King Crimson overtones (“Frame by Frame”). A seriously high shred factor is still in full force across the disc especially notable on tracks like the relentless “Sell Turf-Zoid” and “The Big Cat Diet.” McGill shows a stronger mastery of unique tone effects that keep him more closely aligned in the forefront of his songs’ melodic phrasing. “Birthquake” is the simply the best workout on the disc for the trio with overtones much like jazzier Hendrix interludes leading into a well executed knockdown blow out. Bassist Chico Huffs gets to lay down a fat line on “Like a Stone Cold...” that fits in with the nice change up on the Arabic modal piece, “Zirakfendi”. Overall producer and drummer Ritchie DeCarlo has done a good job in keeping the rhythm section in the forefront of the mix making the entire recording sound live directly from the studio. In summary McGill has done a superb job juggling melody and chops which guitar fans can easily embrace.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 34, 2006 releases

Related artist(s): Scott McGill

More info
http://scottmcgill.bandcamp.com/album/awareness

 

What's new

These are the most recent changes made to artists, releases, and articles.