Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 132 i Australian Guitar

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE

Had Kurt Vile been given a Fender in 1994, his life might have panned out differently. But as it happens, his father gave him a banjo at the age of 14 and he embraced the open tuning, playing it like the guitar he lowkey wished he’d been given. “The banjo is a beautiful instrument in general,” Vile says. “It just drones, whether you know you’re droning or not – it puts you in a trance.” Listening to the wry, stream of consciousness lyrics and floating acoustic melody of “Bassackwards” – the lengthy second single from Vile’s eighth and most recent studio album, Bottle It In – you could say the same about him. When he stepped away from The War On Drugs, the indie rock band he founded with Adam…

FRESHLY CRUSHED

It’s a common trope that sophomore efforts are always seeped in years of tumult, but Julia Jacklin was determined to rebel against that. The indie-folk Sydneysider didn’t feel any pressure to one-up her acclaimed debut – 2016’s heady and hardhearted Don’t Let The Kids Win (henceforth Kids) – when she was writing its follow-up. In fact, she made a cognisant effort to approach the music with as laidback a vibe as she could. Crushing doesn’t necessarily reflect that – with its booming instrumentals, impassioned musings and overall amplified sense of fortitude, it’s worlds bigger than Kids. But there’s a recalcitrant looseness to it; a palpable sense of laxity and a lack of restraint that offers a peek at Jacklin in her most defiantly human state. “I wanted to experiment with…

FROM Sheffield WITH Love

Few things in life are truly inevitable – like politicians with shockingly few brain cells actively destroying the planet for a quick cent; your child’s migraine-inducing teen angst phase, in which you develop a newfound respect for silence; and, of course, Bring Me The Horizon dropping a new album to a fanbase split between unequivocal adoration and sheer, seething rage. From the moment they chased Count Your Blessings (a cut-and-dry deathcore album with blast beats in abundance, guttural breakdowns and an ear-busting surge of churlish squeals) up with Suicide Season (a glitchy, synth-infected metalcore mecca slicked over with tight and meticulous production), the South Yorkshire mainstays have been simultaneously praised as Gods and slandered as heathens of the highest disgrace. But 15 years deep, the fivesome have only grown more…

SHREDDING THE DISTANCE

Now is the best possible time to be a Dream Theater fan with a soft spot for nostalgia. Not only are the venerable Long Island prog-metallers celebrating four enormous milestones (30 years of When Dream And Day Unite, 25 of Awake, 20 of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory and ten of Black Clouds & Silver Linings), but they’ve also got a scorching new set of solos and shred under their belts. Their 14th album in total, Distance Over Time is a landmark release for Dream Theater in a way that, had it been any other band we were talking about, certainly wouldn’t be grounds for acclaim. After 30 years of upping the ante with their convalescent displays of prog-metal despotism and soul-tingling theatricality – peaking with 2016’s The…

8 min

NAMM 2019 LOUDER THAN LIFE

KEMPER Kemper’s big news for 2019 is the Kemper Kabinet, a combination of the new Kemper Kone 12-inch speaker made by Celestion and special tone-mining technology that makes it possible to imprint various speaker characteristics onto one cabinet. Madonna/Prong guitarist Monte Pittman was on-hand to demo the Kabinet, which is designed specifically to work with Kemper profilers. It’s able to switch between full-range and guitar modes, and the Speaker Imprint Mode is designed specifically to give you a great ‘amp in the room’ sound, rather than substituting the miked cabinet simulations of a profile. Kemper is planning an active version of the cabinet as well, and will offer the Kemper Kone as a replacement speaker for any regular cabinet that can hold a 12-inch speaker. MARSHALL Marshall stunned everybody at…

RECORDING TECHNIQUES WITH ALEX WILSON

Alex Wilson is a man of many talents. He’s the bassist and key creative force behind Sydney post-rock outfit sleepmakeswaves, he regularly pens gear reviews for this very magazine (just a few pages away), and more recently, he’s stepped outside the recording booth to learn the art of record production. Though he’s already amassed a sizable collection of clients, Wilson has also started working on his own music, with the ultimate goal of handling all the recording duties on the next sleepmakeswaves record. Writing an album is one thing, but to produce, engineer and mix your own music requires a certain set of skills, discipline and emotional disconnection to achieve. Though it has it advantages, moving from musician to producer isn’t the easiest process according to Wilson. You’ve co-produced the…

TAPPED STRING SKIPPING ARPEGGIOS: PART TWO

In the previous issue, I looked at playing arpeggios across the strings using a combination of right hand tapping and string skipping, and I illustrated this technique with major and minor triads. For this column, I thought I’d continue with this idea by applying the same concept to some common seventh arpeggios. A seventh chord/arpeggio is constructed by taking a three note triad and adding a note that is a seventh interval above the root note. The seventh arpeggios I’ve chosen to look at here are the minor seventh (1-b3-5-b7), dominant seventh (1-3-5-b7), major seventh (1-3-5-7), and diminished seventh (1-b3-b5-bb7). EXERCISE #1 For ease of learning, I’ve based the tapped arpeggio licks in Exercise #1 around the same root note (A) in 12th position. Using 16th note triplets, the basic…

MODERN THEORY

This issue’s lesson is about how you can combine the CAGED system, pentatonic scales and arpeggios to make your solos more melodic and memorable. The CAGED system is a very useful tool. It allows you to see one chord in five different positions on the fret board using five open chord positions. Once you know how to create barre chords form open chords you will understand how to turn five open major chords into 60 chords. Combine this with minor chords or seventh chords, any type of chord extension, and you will become a walking chord encyclopedia. The CAGED system is also very useful when soloing. If you can see the chords underneath the scales you are playing you will be able to create phrases that are melodic and memorable.…

COLLINGS CITY LIMITS SOLIDBODY ELECTRIC GUITAR

Bill Collings was a lowkey legend in the world of lutherie when he emigrated from the Midwest in the '70s. He’d eventually find a home in Austin, Texas, and set up shop. Initially know for his work with acoustics, Collings eventually branched out into electrics and by the '90s business was good. Wide-ranging innovation hasn’t tended to be the focus of the company’s guitar designs. It would be more accurate to call Collings a connoisseur, someone who displays fastidious understanding and appreciation for the finer points of his craft. The Collings City Limits (CL) is a testament to this – it’s his take on a standard Les Paul. What sets it apart is in the details. Because while it really does look like an LP, the CL is by no…

JACKSON X SERIES ADRIAN SMITH SDXQ

Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith is a man of exceptional taste in guitars. From the Goldtop Les Pauls he wielded in the ‘80s to his current Jackson Superstrats, he’s always gone for guitars that could fit into Iron Maiden’s multi-guitar attack while also holding their own during solo moments. Jackson offers several different Smith models, including the USA Signature Adrian Smith San Dimas DK and the affordable X Series Adrian Smith SDX. The latest is the X Series Adrian Smith SDXQ, which takes the basic spec of the SDX and adds a transparent quilt maple top, inspired by a Custom Shop instrument Smith has been using for a few years now. BRAVE NEW WORLD The SDXQ has a basswood body under that maple top – a wood combination that you’ll find…

YAMAHA REVSTAR RS B

Yamaha has never made a bad guitar. The Pacifica is legendary (in its incarnation as a beginner’s guitar as well as more deluxe offerings). Ditto the RGZ, whose ad copy famously proclaimed, “Naked girls and flaming skulls don’t make a guitar work better. Unfortunately.” Or the Weddington, which foreshadowed the ‘Superpauls’ of ESP and Schecter by about a decade. But Yamaha’s most iconic guitar is the SG – a pointy-horned-but-not-like-Angus’s guitar which debuted in 1974. The Revstar feels like it belongs in the family with all of them, but it brings its own unique spirit to the table. GIVE IT A REV The Revstar line is made up of models for the beginner up to the serious professional and everywhere in between, but it’s not just a matter of progressively…

UNIFY GATHERING

WHEN: THURSDAY JANUARY 10TH – SUNDAY 13TH, 2019 WHERE: TARWIN LOWER, SOUTH GIPPSLAND VIC Hell hath no fury like the punishing combo of blistering sun and barbarous dust that regional Victoria heralds like a trophy. It’s a taxing journey into the Tarwin Lower campgrounds, the lure of our wildest mosh fantasies laying ahead the only thing convincing us to keep slugging our swag through the fields. But despite bellying to a colossal new venue boasting a 12,000-person capacity, the 2019 UNIFY Gathering feels decidedly cozy; the campsite has a caucus hub complete with its own mini stage, and the way it centres the campsite creates an illusion of homeliness rather than breadth. Exclusive to early campers, the kick-off celebrations – led by a thumping microconcert hosted by ‘emo night’ luminaries…

8 min

THE ART OF THE VIBE

Ah, Tasmania! Without it, we wouldn’t have the 1980 cult classic Manganinnie, cold schooners of Cascade to wash away our weekends, or a minor addiction to Cadbury Dairy Milk. And yet, Australia’s lowly little underdog is relegated to the butt of us mainlanders’ jokes – hilarious, sure, but admittedly a tad bit cruel. Well, that’s all about to change, if Perthian psych-rock powerhouse Pond have their way! Their transcendental eighth album is named after Australia’s most often forgotten state, and is sure to finally put the little nugget of land that could on the map. It’s also somewhat of a sequel to their 2017 effort The Weather, as we learn from vocalist, guitarist and bassist Joseph ‘Shiny Joe’ Ryan. “It carries a few similar themes about Australia, and how we’re…

404 ERROR: BAD MUSIC NOT FOUND

It’s only been out for a couple of weeks, but we’re just about ready to declare Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost – Part 1 a unconditional classic. The fifth album to come from the British dance-rock debonairs in Foals is tight, bright and deliriously fun, littered with pulsating keyboard melodies and undercut with a swathe of glittering synths. It’s also the first half of an ambitious two-chapter showpiece; Part 2 is set for release this September, and it exists in somewhat of a paradoxical sphere – those who disagree with our praise for Part 1 can breathe easy knowing there’ll be a sonic shift in its sequel. Those who find themselves swooning over its unapologetic energy, on the other hand, will be stoked to know there’s more of the…

INTO THE MIND OF THE EMPATH

The eccentricity of Devin Townsend’s art makes him a favourite of those who like to… Erm, open their third eye with some ingestible assistance, so to speak, before they sit down to spin his tunes. But heed our warning: Empath is so anfractuous and unhinged that it’s almost guaranteed to send any good trip southward. “To call the LP insane would be an understatement – lashings of guitars, synths, orchestration, drums and vocals clash and collide with a forceful and ferocious extremity. It can be a taxing listen at first, but somewhere along the line it all starts to click, and all the threads that Townsend sprawls across the record start to stitch up. You could say it’s avant garde, but at its core, Empath is an all-out assault on…

6 min

this is AMERICA

It’s a notably lowkey evening for Gary Clark Jr. Having just announced This Land – the unbearably long-awaited follow-up to his 2015 breakthrough LP, The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim – the Texan shredder plods into a booth at his local tavern, orders a plate of wings (extra hot – you know the drill) and melts into a transcendental state of relaxation. It’s almost surprising how blasé he is; after all, it was just days prior that he’d sent a shockwave through the blues-rock community with the opaquely blunt and polarising video to the title track off This Land. For those who haven’t yet seen the clip (first of all, you’re doing yourself a disservice), its first half is simple enough – choice shots of Clark doing what he does…

18 min

IBANEZ S PLAYER’S PLAYER

Ibanez is one of the biggest guitar brands in the world, and with good reason: they’ve continually placed themselves at the forefront of guitar development ever since entering a new age of innovation in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Since that shred-tastic era, they’ve given us the Edge family of double-locking vibratos and back-routed bridge cavities, the first production seven-string guitar, hybrid fretted/fretless basses, never-before-seen finishes, and some of the first baritone instruments geared towards metal players. And, lo and beyond, they’ve managed to drop our jaws yet again. Ibanez introduced the AZ Series at Winter NAMM 2018 with a solid series of standard and signature models – that was impressive enough as is, but this year, the company has really upped their game with even more AZ models.…

SHURE MV PREMIUM DIGITAL STEREO CONDENSOR

In a world where mindless algorithms are constantly plowing content down our virtual throats, the audiophiles among us would at least like our viral videos to please the ear. Poorly recorded smartphone audio can be a distressing sonic experience – up there with a kindergarten recorder choir or Pitbull. Shure released the original MV88 a few years back, and with this new iteration, they’ve added a ‘plus’ onto the name along with some cool new features. The basic component is a stereo condenser microphone with switchable pickup patterns. These are controlled from Shure’s MOTIV app, which is available for Android and iOS devices. Within the app you can set the mic as cardioid, bi-directional, mid/side and width-adjustable stereo. There’s also some basic, yet well-considered DSP on board. You’ll have access…

THE ‘TWO’ CHORD

If you’re familiar with the blues, you’ve probably heard of the expression ‘one’ ‘four’ ‘five’, commonly denoted in latin numerals as I IV V. In a twelve bar in the key of A, for example, these numbers represent the A (I) the D (IV) and the E (V). If you’re lost at this point, my advice is... Do these exercises anyway! You’ll learn something regardless. Otherwise, get set to delve into the 2 – or two, or II – chord, as it can also appear in your typical twelve bar! Generally speaking, the first and most obvious evolution of the standard twelve bar will be seen in the last four bars, known as the turnaround. In the key of A, the second chord or ‘two’ chord will be – you…

CD REVIEWS

BEC STEVENS Why Don’t You Just HOBBLEDEHOY The second EP from Melbourne indie-rock trailblazer Bec Stevens is decidedly raw – twangy, spacious strumming, papery drums and warbling strings build sparse and smoky soundscapes for Stevens to howl over, which she does with wild might. She makes 26 minutes feel like five, and captures the essence of her goosebump-inducing live show with such dazzling veracity that if we crank our headphones loud enough and squint reeeeeally hard, we can almost see ourselves there. Comparisons to acts like Camp Cope and Beach Bunny are fair, but there’s a tonal eccentricity to Why Don’t You Just that is entirely Stevens’ own. It’s a strikingly sensitive, peak-and-valley charisma that we simply can’t get enough of. MATT DORIA CHERRY GLAZERR Stuffed & Ready SECRETLY CANADIAN…

IN-DEPTH SPECIFICATIONS

The CL is built from seasoned maple top with a Honduran mahogany neck and body. The neck is C-shaped, covered with a Rosewood fingerboard and attached with a hand-crafted extra-long mortise and tenon joint. This is an ancient and bespoke woodworking technique. This seems as good a place as any to say that while the neck is on the thicker side, it is very comfortable. Even with heavier strings on, they still bend relatively easily. The frets, which are also smooth and comfy, are medium nickel-silver. The bridge and tailpiece are from Kluson and the tuners are from Gotoh. Gear nerds will be interested in the PAF pickups from Lollar. PAF, standing for “Patent Applied For”, denotes a style based on legendary humbuckers that shipped with Gibson guitars from late…

1 min

TWO NOTES TORPEDO C.A.B. M

So much of modern technological innovation is devoted not to pushing sound to bold new frontiers, but to using technology to make it easier and more affordable to get classic sounds. Like the Two Notes Torpedo Studio unit we’ve reviewed in the past, the new C.A.B. M doesn’t deny that some of the best sounds come from a tube amp cranking through a cabinet. But it also acknowledges that home studios don’t have the space and necessary soundproofing to for that kind of setup, and bands don’t have the kind of budget required to bring a dozed four-by-12s on the road for their Wall Of Doom now that the arse has fallen out of the record industry. SO LONG, MIC The Torpedo C.A.B. M is built on the premise that…

IBANEZ AZ242F

Ibanez has long been at the forefront of guitar trends. There’s a famous photo of Kramer’s Dennis Berardi wincing in visible angst at the NAMM unveiling of Steve Vai’s Ibanez JEM back in 1987, for instance. Ibanez led the charge in the 7-string revolution (another Vai innovation), their Edge locking tremolo is considered among the best in the biz, and they were ahead of the curve on things like all-access neck joints, automatic split-coil wiring, and baritones geared towards metal. But somewhere along the way, a few boutique guitar brands started to woo Ibanez players, maybe not consciously, but there was a bit of, “Have you moved on from Floyds and pointy cutaways and high-powered pickups? Then we’ve got your new guitar.” I don’t know if this was specifically part…

THE BEAUTY IN CHAOS

Say what you will of the streaming revolution, an indisputable upside has been the ability to binge on multifarious playlists that shift and swerve between divergent styles and genres at the flick of a hat. The second you feel a craving arise, you’re no more than a few clicks away from catching up on all the jams you already know and love, with the potential to come across a few cuts you wouldn’t have thought to suss otherwise, but might just fall head over heels for. What Chaos Is Imaginary unfurls like one of those playlists; there are similarities between each track that makes them all distinctly Girlpool, but no two sound like they’re from the same record. Twists and turns are abundant across the 14 tracks, like the hazy…

THE BIG PICTURE

When La Dispute dropped Rooms Of The House in 2014, it felt like there was no possible way for the band to progress further. 42 minutes of straight sweltering, soul-rattling emo, it showed the Grand Rapids troupe reach a peak with their sedulous blend of tumultuous post-hardcore and gut-wrenching poetry. But five years on, La Dispute have managed to defy the odds with Panorama – an all-out emotional rollercoaster through stormy sloughs of angst and anxiety via raw, hardhearted musicality. Lead guitarist Chad Sterenberg sums it up best: “It’s probably the most interesting, and layered, and complex thing we’ve ever put together.” It’s the type of record that truly deserves to be indulged as an event in its own right – not just for the consistently meticulous and atmospheric soundscapes…

50% COMFORT. 50% SUPPORT. 100% FEELS

From the moment they stepped into the spotlight, Sports Bra positioned themselves as much more than just another pop-leaning rock quartet churning out angsty songs for bored teens (though they’re effortlessly apt as such). Their manifesto is sharp and succinct: “No gods. No masters. Gender is fake. F*** cops.” It’s scrawled around the border of their 2017 self-titled debut, and weaves itself into every facet of the band’s ethnology, from their live show – which acts as a call-to-arms for queer and trans punters to command the pit like their cishet peers often do – to opaquely necessary, soul-thumping gems like “Try Harder” and “Survival”. Borne from the ashes of a festival lineup’s worth of slain Sydney emo staples (Hannahband, Skin Prison, Dog Dirt, Mortgage… The list could fill this…

SMALL FISH IN THE BIG SEA

Anybody with a sibling will understand how no tool wields as much vehement, motivation-spurring power as spite. Sometimes it can lead to small victories, like whipping up the best chocolate cake on Earth to out-do your big sister’s custard tart, or getting better marks from an exam because you channeled all that rage over your brother’s last unfairly fruitful report card into study fuel. But every once in a blue moon, spite will trigger a whirlwind of success that leads to international superstardom and choice spots in magazines like Australian Guitar (ahem). Such were the origins of Amy Shark: while the chart-annihilating pop queen never saw music as a viable career option in her formative years – “I thought I was too busy to learn an instrument; I just wanted…

A SPEED ROUND WITH SONNY BOY SLIM

If you could collaborate with any guitarist, dead or alive, who would it be? Hendrix. I have these dreams where I’m sitting around in a circle with him and Bob Marley, and we’re just talking about music and playing the guitar together. What’s one song from another artist that you always wish you’d written? “Liberation” by Outkast, just because it has such a beautiful message. They collaborated with Erykah Badu on it, and I’ve got a lot of respect for the Badu family – their musicality, and the way they mixed the live instrumentation with the digital. And that chorus – “there’s a fine line between love and hate, you see / came way too late, but baby, I’m on it” – that really resonated with me. That was the…

2 min

HOT GEAR

GIBSON 60TH ANNIVERSARY 1959 LES PAUL STANDARD RRP: $11,499 • australismusic.com.au No specific Gibson model carries more intrigue and gravitas than the 1959 Les Paul Standard. The instrument was simply enchanting, from its beautiful figured maple top to its extreme sonic versatility. From laser-scanned dimensions to chemically recreated plastics and color-matched shades of sunburst, every element of this generational beast has been replicated in unbelievable detail. IBANEZ RGD71ALMS BAM RRP: $2,199 • australismusic.com.au The new Axion Label is made for metal, offering more to the adventurous player. This shows with the RGD71ALMS BAM, which features a five-piece Nitro Wizard 7 Panga/ Walnut neck, jumbo frets with Sub-Zero treatment, Fishman Fluence Modern Humbucker pickups and Gotoh MG-T locking machine heads. This guitar embodies the utmost of forward-looking development in sound, with…

REACHING FOR THE NEXT LEVEL

It’s likely that if you’re travelling the path of making music – be it playing, writing or recording – you’ve at some point found yourself at a crossroads, or at the foot of a mountain that seems impassable. It can be very frustrating when you're trying hard to get your work to the next level, but feel like you just keep hitting a wall. Any creative pursuit involves constantly seeking to develop and improve your work. In a nutshell, your work will only ever be as good as the weakest link in it. It could be the song, the performance, the instruments, the recording gear, the engineering, the mixing, the mastering... There's a lot of variables, is what I'm trying to get at. Sometimes it’s just a matter of stepping…

8 min

ADJUSTING TO SEVEN-STRING GUITARS

Even before Steve Vai put the seven-string guitar on the map, septuple-stringed instruments were floating around. In the early ‘90s, seven-strings were the domain of shredders like Vai. A few years later, when grunge put shred guitar in mothballs, a few virtuoso players kept the seven-string flag flying, such as Dream Theater’s John Petrucci and Morbid Angel’s Trey Azagthoth. When seven-string guitar prices bottomed out on the used market, the low rumble of Korn returned the instrument to the spotlight, and soon a parade of nu metal bands adopted the seven for their low-tuned riffage. Eventually, many of those players returned to six strings, often in baritone or at least tuned down to C#, C or C. Today, the seven-string guitar is ubiquitous in metal and progressive rock, and nearly…

TOP PICK

ALEX LAHEY The Best Of Luck Club NICKY BOY / CAROLINE Up until this point, Alex Lahey has reigned as a relatively straightforward pop-rock luminary, her glimmering wit and laidback spirit making 2017’s I Love You Like A Brother one of that year’s most memorable offerings. But with The Best Of Luck Club, the Tele-weilding Melbournite trades quirky observations of millennial life for sharp, from-the-hip ruminations on love, hate, and the perils of wrangling with an anxious mind that loves a fight. It’s an unflinching torrent of angular fearlessness and polarising honesty, by way of some enthrallingly strong musicality. As a guitarist, Lahey uses The Best Of Luck Club as a playground for tonal exploration. There’s plenty of the exuberant, mid-aughts-channelling pop-rock buoyancy that Lahey does best (“I Don’t Get…

2 min

CORT CR250 VB

The Cort CR250 is part of their Classic Rock range – one that includes some familiar shapes and sounds. The CR250 has that oh-so-familiar look, but with a couple of simple differences: the horn of the Florentine cutaway is a little pointier and the headstock shape (a copyright component) is different but similar, and just as elegant. It’s a timeless design, and just as relevant today as it was in 1952. The CR250 features a set neck design, with a mahogany neck glued into a mahogany body. The body has a beautiful carved (not pressed) flame maple top, the neck has a bound rosewood fingerboard with 22 beautifully crowned frets, and the whole package is wrapped up in a classy vintage-style sunburst. And Cort have gone the extra mile with…

MUSIC MAN BALL FAMILY RESERVE AXIS

Our friends at Music Man have sent us a real treat for this review: a Ball Family Reserve Axis – a beautiful presented twin humbucker solidbody with a gorgeous figured maple top. The Axis series has been around, in various renderings, for a couple of decades now and, from its origin, it was meant to be a straight-ahead rock machine (thanks Eddie!) without the distraction of multiple switches and knobs. The Ball Family Reserve is a program involving limited runs of selected models using the absolute finest materials available and produced by Ernie Ball/Music Man’s truly artisan-level custom shop. This particular Axis, one of only 75, remains true to the “Axis philosophy” of stripped-down simplicity with two pickups, one knob, one switch, and a whammy. It also has one of…

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SOLO

In the past five years alone, instrumental blues legend Tommy Emmanuel has released eight full-length studio albums. Even for someone who wasn’t over 20 records and 57 years deep into their solo tenure – who’d endured heart problems a decade earlier from literally working too hard – that would be a monumental effort. But of course, Tommy Emmanuel is no mere mortal when it comes to the guitar. The Muswellbrook-native 63-year-old is a superhuman behind a set of strings – one of only five CGPs (Certified Guitar Players) accredited by Chet Atkins himself, and a junkie for new milestones to break. And despite churning records out like KFC churns out calories, he’s showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. Hell, in 2018 alone, Emmanuel played an average of…