Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol. 146 i Australian Guitar

MITSKI Laurel Hell DEAD OCEANS There is no grunge-soaked moment of catharsis like ‘Your Best American Girl’ on Laurel Hell; the closest we get is a crashing mid-song climax on ‘There’s Nothing Left For You’. There’s no disco-pop twirling like ‘Nobody’, either, but ‘Love Me More’, echoing New Order, almost takes us there. Here, Mitski takes the up-tempo pop sensibilities of her 2018 album, Be The Cowboy, and stretches them to fun tunes influenced by full-blown ‘80s pop ballads and grandiosity. The conceptual themes of Be The Cowboy – narrative and fiction, embodying strutting characters – are gone. Instead, Mitski has turned inward, refusing to wear more masks that hide her personality. Of course, some moments don’t quite work; moments that might as well be an awkward ‘80s pop music…

Across almost three decades, Bodyjar have cultivated a dedicated fanbase both at home and overseas, utilising a tight regimen of blistering touring and unadulterated live shows. The Melbourne legends’ brand of no-holds-barred punk has cemented them as one of Australia’s gold standards in the genre, notable not just in their live performances, but in their eight studio albums – a catalogue set to expand with a ninth album next month. Though it’s been dubbed New Rituals, the release isn’t exactly new Bodyjar. The band, as they tell Australian Guitar, actually made a return to the energetic tones and upbeat rhythms on which they cut their teeth all those years ago. It’s a touch of the old mixed with the new, produced by the band alongside Sam Johnson, whose production resume…

Bullet For My Valentine guitarists Matt Tuck and Michael ‘Padge’ Paget are no strangers to reinvention. Throughout the course of a 23 year-career, the band have continually searched for new ways to equate anthemic melody against metallic heaviness. In 2018, their sixth album Gravity saw them experiment further away from their thrash metal roots, embracing more radio-friendly structures and flirting with electronica while still remaining very much a guitar band. But now the pendulum has swung again with a new, self-titled album that could be their heaviest yet. “We wanted this to be an extreme version of our band,” Matt says, as he and Padge describe how the new songs were created – from the first bunch of riffs to the shredding solos they call ‘widdly bits’... When did the…

Joe Bonamassa – calling in from “Nerdville,” his home in Nashville – has just released Time Clocks, his 15th solo album, on his own J&R Adventures label. About the new record, Bonamassa says, “What started out with the intention of being a trio record turned into probably my most adventurous and involved record.” His producer, Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley, adds, “I think Joe has made an album that is truly transitional, from a blues musician to a superstar artist. I’m so thrilled to be along for the ride.” Bonamassa and Shirley brought the legendary Bob Clearmountain onboard to mix the tracks. But Bonamassa hasn’t confined his energies to writing, recording, touring and melting faces. He’s also a co-founder of the Keeping The Blues Alive foundation, which functions both as a record…

Clarett is Focusrite’s premium studio-grade USB interface range and with only three devices to choose from, offer a more focused product line than Focusrite’s entry-level Scarlett. All three operate at up to 24-bit/192kHz, including MIDI I/O and additional connectivity via ADAT interface. They also have a decent bundle of software including Focusrite’s Red 2 and Red 3 plugins and Plugin Alliance’s bx_console Focusrite SC. Their recent update to Clarett+, as you might expect from an audiophile device, focuses on improving the performance rather than expanding that feature set. The Clarett+ 2Pre we have for review is the smallest of the three and has two mic pres with front-mounted combination mic/line/instrument inputs with gain controls and individual selfilluminating phantom power switches. There’s also an Air LED indicator for the optional ISA…

We all know Vox’s classic valve guitar amps go right back to the beginnings of pop and rock over 60 years ago, but it might come as a surprise for some that the company’s digital modelling products have been with us for around 20 years now, writing a significant chapter in Vox’s long and colourful history. Unlike valves, digital guitar amplification methods are still being developed, and Vox’s current modelling products use VET or Virtual Element Technology, an evolution of the original REMS engine used on early Valvetronix amps and effects, both of which were developed by Vox’s parent company, synth giant Korg. In keeping with Vox’s reputation for innovation, VET incorporates many cutting-edge refinements and captures traditional valve circuits in unprecedented digital detail, as we found out last year…

Fender’s Acoustasonic series testifies to their willingness to innovate. The guitar market offers a great deal of granular brand choice, but doesn’t really mess with the fundamentals of classic guitar design too often. New instruments that don’t merely play to a consumer niche, but attempt to open up some unexplored creative spaces, are rare. The initial American Acoustasonic Series showed remarkable technical and design aptitude via its unique reimagining of the acoustic/electric guitar binary. But with its very high price point, these US-made instruments were not available to everybody. The Acoustasonic Player Telecaster, made in Ensenada, Mexico, knocks a big chunk off the price of the American line. This is a good thing, since the experience of playing and creating offered by this design will cater to a number of…

Two new EHX pedals arrived recently, one modern and the other a modern take on one of the company’s greatest pedals of all time. Respectively, the Ripped Speaker fuzz and the Nano Deluxe Memory Man are equally cool in their own way and offer hip features that warrant a deeper look. RIPPED SPEAKER Designed to deliver everything from vintage buzz to blistering, shred-metal fuzz, the Ripped Speaker is a four-knob pedal that, along with fuzz, tone and volume controls, has a powerful rip control that adjusts the bias of the circuit to vary the amount of clipping at the top or bottom of the waveform (more on this to come). It’s convenient that the pedal can be powered by a battery or external nine-volt DC adapter (not included), and it…

Valve preamp pedals are not a new concept – and Blackstar should know. It was there at the vanguard with its HT range back in the year of its launch in 2007. The company’s late co-founder and technical director Bruce Keir playing a key role in the design and development of pedals that harnessed valve technology in a compact, floor-based enclosure. It’s a testament to his legacy that the company has named its new range after the team tasked with continuing the innovative work Keir helped start; Department 10. The elephant in the room is that the appeal of valve preamp pedals has been relatively niche in the guitar world. Perhaps because so few have been truly valve-driven like these pedals are. While the development and popularity of digital effects…

BEN SPEIGHT HAILS FROM BRISBANE, QLD PLAYS IN FUTURE HAUNTS SOUNDS LIKE SOARING INDIE-ROCK WITH A BRITPOP FLAIR LATEST DROP I CAN’T CHANGE THE WAY YOU CHANGE (EP OUT NOW INDEPENDENTLY) What’s your current go-to guitar? Japanese Fender Jazzmaster. I’ll admit I saw Tom playing Jazzmasters in his other band Good Boy and just loved the look and sound so got myself one – haven’t looked back. It’s a modern one but it just plays so well and stays in shape easily, every other Jazzmaster I’ve picked up just doesn’t feel right to me. It’s got a really thin neck, I’ve replaced the pickups with Lollars (JM neck, P-90 bridge) and it just goes hard. How did you initially fall in love with the instrument? I absolutely hated guitar when…

Anyone for tennis? Well, not quite, but two of Australia’s all-time guitar greats are up for a match of sorts next March. Ian Moss and Troy Cassar-Daley are heading out on one hell of a tour, buddying up for a collaborative venture dubbed Together Alone. The 17-date run will see both musicians onstage simultaneously; as Ian performs one of his songs, Troy will perform harmonies and accompanying vocals – and vice versa – drawing on some of the pair’s best-known songs, past and present… And future, too. Nestled in the pair’s set will be an all-new song, ‘Nullarbor Plain’, which the pair worked on and performed for Moss’ as-yet-unannounced eighth studio album. The whole album is, in fact, the result of Mossy getting “stuck into it” during our numerous lockdowns,…

Chaos and confusion stumped PLANET’s plans in 2020, so the Sydney outfit bunkered down at home in the city’s inner-west and wrote Information Overload, their debut full-length offering due out in March. As standalone tracks, Information Overload has it all – without, no pun intended, overloading the listener. From the jagged pull of the acoustic guitar that breaks the can open in ‘Lost My Honesty’, to the depth of doubt that guides the narrative of ‘Ship Won’t Change’ – right the way over to a melancholic refrain as PLANET observe the state of modern life in ‘Resign’ – the band rolled with the punches and ended up with one hell of a prize. As the first chapter in what’s shaping up to be a truly illustrious career, Information Overload is…

When it comes to earth-conquering riffage and head-crushing psychedelic warfare, Mastodon are seasoned masters of their trade. From the sludgy brutality heard on 2002 debut Remission to their more progressive exploits in recent years, they’ve continually conjured a perfect storm of left-field tunings and time signatures and harmonies that stun. Similar things can be said of the 15 tracks that make up the band’s new double album Hushed And Grim, which features some truly inspired fretwork from Bill Kelliher and Brent Hinds. As ever, it’s the interplay between the two guitarists that separates Mastodon from their peers. And this time it feels like they’ve capitalised on their twin-guitar assault to the absolute fullest. Speaking with us from his home in Atlanta, Kelliher talks about the mountain of gear used on…

AUSTRALIAN GUITAR CAUGHT UP WITH THE MODERN-DAY GREAT TO RIFF ON THE OLD-SCHOOL INFLUENCE THAT DROVE ITS PRODUCTION, ALL THE DROOL-WORTHY GEAR THAT WENT INTO IT, AND WHY – THANKS, ODDLY ENOUGH, TO THE PANDEMIC – A FIFTH ALBUM MIGHT COME WAY SOONER THAN ANY OF US EXPECT. In modern guitar music, there’s one name that can make even the staunchest of old-school apologists admit that rock ‘n’ roll is, in fact, alive and well. That name – as you may have guessed from the giant picture of him to your right, the steadfirst or, well, the very cover of this issue – is Slash. Though he’s an undisputed king of hard-rock’s golden age, thanks in no short part to his historic tenure in Guns N’ Roses (who also have…

When Jimi Hendrix passed through Paris on one of his tours, a guitarist he was keen to meet was Nicolas Kasanda wa Mikalay – the Congolese finger-picking electric guitar master more widely known as Dr. Nico, or to many across mid-20th century Africa, L’ Eternel Docteur Nico. At around the same time that “Clapton is God” graffiti was appearing on London walls, Africans were calling Dr. Nico the Guitar God. With good reason. If cascades of gorgeous-to-gritty tone, an effortless flow of sparkling, playful melody, harmonisation and dazzling polyrhythmic syncopations make up your idea of six-string divinity, Dr. Nico surely belongs in your pantheon. He came along at an ideal moment in musical history and African history. In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, the electric guitar had reached a…

If you strum a ukulele in space, does it make a sound? In Chris Sembroski’s case, it certainly makes a difference. The Air Force veteran won the Generosity seat on the first-ever all civilian crew for SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission. With a donation to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, the U.S. Space Camp counsellor and Lockheed Martin data engineer was entered in the contest that ultimately punched his ticket beyond the stratosphere. He brought a Martin soprano ukulele designed specially for the mission aboard and played it in space. The other members of Inpiration4 included commander and benefactor Jared Isaacman representing Leadership, Dr. Sian Proctor representing Prosperity and Hayley Arcenaux representing Hope. Arcenaux is a cancer survivor who was treated at St. Jude’s and now works there. The Netflix documentary Countdown:…

Combining a Gibson humbucker with a Fender single coil – a benchmark mod-favourite – has certainly produced some stellar sounds, be it in the hands of Keith Richards or Andy Summers just for starters. Then there’s the allure of Fender’s neck humbucking/bridge single-coil Telecaster Custom. These are all invariably unbalanced pairings and it’s that mismatch that interests us here. While the matched pickup set still rules, actually mixing up the styles and different brands can be rather inspiring, especially to the many of us who have been stuck recording these past months – anything that kicks a new riff, lick or song is very welcome. In recent years we’ve definitely seen an expansion of pickup styles that are available to us beyond the de facto humbucker and single coils. As…

As the name suggests, this new plugin is all about reverb. As with the previous FAST tools, one of the headline features here is the analysis tool powered by Sonsible’s AI tech. Simply play some audio into the plugin, hit Learn and the AI will suggest a reverb preset for you based on what it thinks will work best. To help this process, users can define a source type – including drums, vocals, keys, guitar and more – and then tailor the reverb style more by choosing between Natural, Balanced and Artificial options. While it would be a misnomer to say there is a definitive right or wrong way to apply EQ or compression, it’s certainly true that there are broad principles that define a standard way to treat certain…

Short scale guitars are defined by a scale length of 24 inches – just shy of 60 centimetres. Known for generally being a bit easier to play, they are often chosen for children, students and those with smaller hands. But they’ve also been played extensively live and on record by some of the best, including John Frusciante, Johnny Marr, Kevin Shields and PJ Harvey. These artists, particularly via the 24-inch Jaguars and Mustangs from Fender, helped get the short scale out front. It’s best to think about the difference between short scale guitars and their longer compatriots as a set of trade-offs. Diminished distance between the nut and the bridge lessens the tension on the strings, increasing playability and responsiveness. Yet the increased tension of a longer scale delivers additional…

Polyphia guitarist Tim Henson once made the mistake of voicing a personal preference in a video on the internet. The throwaway comment on how he likes to avoid “boomer-ish” bends occupied roughly ten seconds of a 40-minute roundtable entitled The Modern Guitar Discussion. Given this context – or, frankly, any context – it was a perfectly reasonable statement to make. Not least because host Rick Beato had invited Henson on alongside fellow contemporary guitar titans Tosin Abasi and Misha Mansoor, to discuss exactly this sort of thing. But, of course, half the internet interpreted Henson’s comment as nothing less than a threat to their very existence. It was as if Henson had stood on his chair and made a rallying call to eradicate not just ‘boomer bends’, but an entire…

GREATEST HITS Volume Two LEMON JOE Gold Coast/British group Greatest Hits have fashion. You can feel style all over their new EP, Volume Two (you don’t need to guess the title of their first EP). 15 minutes of funk, psych-rock, and chill sensations make this collection of songs fly by in no time. The sunny ‘Pleasure To Meet You’ meets David Bowie’s ‘Ashes To Ashes’, while the dreamy ‘Nuclear Love’ is backed by catchy bass riffs and an excellent refrain that encourages your sickest dance moves. However, ‘Banana Moon’ doesn’t fare as well; it’s a bore. ‘Palm Springs’ is similarly snoozy. Thankfully, ‘Spicy’ is an exuberant pop tune made for high rotation. Overall, Volume Two is fun, albeit unmemorable. KORN Requiem LOMA VISTA / CONCORD Korn have been on a…

To say Eskimo Joe are a staple in Australian music would be like saying bacon comes from a pig. With a fresh collection of some of their most prevailing songs, The World Repeats Itself Somehow, the band haven’t just dropped a “greatest hits” album, they’ve taken the time to cultivate an anthology of music that serves as a reminder of their sonic capabilities, and the persuasive power their music has to draw in the masses. The choices made for the release makes it something cathartic for the legendary WA rockers, and provides their fans an opportunity to sink their teeth into some rose-tinted gold. Scoring accolades upon accolades, Eskimo Joe have always hit top marks with their music. With their stellar single ‘Black Fingernails, Red Wine’ nestled firmly in the…

Teetering past the magic third album, Methyl Ethel – the nom de plume of multi-instrumentalist Jake Webb – will drop a fourth next month. Where its predecessors were turned around quickly, Are You Haunted? sees Webb pull back and take a fine-tooth comb to the release. There’s not an air of perfectionism about him when he chats with Australian Guitar, though – rather, Webb was careful to cultivate a particular sound: one, he says, which could only come about once he endeavoured to employ a new creative process. An intricate and delicate approach to Are You Haunted? wasn’t restricted to Webb’s songwriting; it manifested in the execution and indeed, his perception of his craft. Webb views his guitars as his tools, not instruments, and used them to create a wealth…

Cutting their teeth as UNFD darlings in the world of mathy, mosh-primed metalcore, Northlane started dipping their toes into the realm of a more electro-centric style with their third album, 2014’s Node. It wasn’t until their fifth, however – 2019’s career-defining Alien – that the Sydney trailblazers would go all the way, twining to their signature slate of tearing riffs and brutalised breakdowns a shimmery palette of thumping trance and visceral bass music. They were unfazed by the prospect of throwing off their fanbase, but they needn’t have worried to begin with: Alien was a monumental success. So, for its follow-up – Obsidian, the band’s first wholly independent offering out in April – Northlane have pushed themselves further outside the box by cranking up all the experimental chaos they explored…

Zakk Wylde first came to prominence when he joined Ozzy Osbourne’s band as a replacement for Jake E. Lee, making his recorded debut with Ozzy in 1988 on ‘No Rest For The Wicked’. The gig was a dream job for Wylde, who’d always loved Black Sabbath and cited Randy Rhoads as one of his favourite guitarists. Ozzy initially wrote off Wylde as a Rhoads clone, but once the guitarist got the chance to show what he could do, it was a no-brainer for the Prince Of Darkness. Wylde has featured on Ozzy’s records and in his live band on-and-off ever since. He embarked on a solo career while with Ozzy, recording Pride And Glory in 1994 and Book Of Shadows in 1996. Wylde formed his own band, Black Label Society,…

By now, if you’re reading this, you’re probably confident with classic two-note fretted powerchord shapes. There’s another way to play powerchords, though. Most associated with AC/DC, open powerchords sound bigger and looser than fretted ones. They’re perfect for hard rock and classic metal, and essential for playing like Van Halen, Ozzy, Maiden, and any of the bands they influenced. Mastering these powerchords shouldn’t take too much work either, because they’re based on shapes you probably already know. Open powerchords take the five basic open major chords (that’s C, A, G, E, and D) and remove the major 3rd. To play them, first identify the note(s) you need to remove (we’ve done that for you with our fret boxes). Then form the chord shape as normal. For any notes you don’t…

Along with its cousin, the Les Paul – as well as Fender’s Stratocaster and Telecaster – the Gibson SG arguably rounds out the big four of classic electric guitars. It’s lent power, brawn and sonic versatility to countless vital long-players in the six decades since its introduction. Narrowing things down to just the ten best of these innumerable SG-powered albums is a near-impossible task, but it does help chart rock’s dizzying evolution, particularly in the ‘60s and ‘70s. From AC/DC’s rabble-rousing debut to Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s stunning Live In Paris 1964, the following albums all – with an SG leading the charge – made a tremendous impact on music in their own way. AC/DC – HIGH VOLTAGE (1976) AC/DC’s first proper release also featured Angus Young’s first SG, a 1970…

The roots of British amp giant Orange can be traced back to the West End of London where, in 1968, company founder Cliff Cooper opened up a small secondhand instrument store called the Orange Shop. Having painted the shopfront a dazzling psychedelic orange colour, Cooper’s new enterprise certainly caught the eye of passing guitar shoppers as they perused the wares of Soho and Tin Pan Alley. “Guys like Marc Bolan, Gary Moore and Paul Kossoff would sit in the shop chatting and jamming all day long,” Cooper told us. “It was part of the whole thing that was happening. They’d come in, take a guitar off the wall and plug in.” One such patron of the Orange Shop was a young Peter Green whose stellar guitar playing in his band…

Tears for Fears have always been a bit of a quandary. While it was easy and convenient to package them up as a ‘synth band’ at their dawning – a (new) wave they had no problem surfing – they are actually something else entirely. And we’re not sure if even they know what. Bands tend to come to synthtown by one of two routes. They’re either A) Utopian Brave New World-ers, mesmerised by the Kraftwerk stance and eager for similar escape. Or B) Grabbers of a flailing synthy lifeline as an escape route out of the uncool maelstrom mess of prog rock. Human League and Heaven 17? Utopians. Barely able to play a note but crafting all-new magical noise precisely because of that. Howard Jones, Nik Kershaw, and Tears For…

When you open up the box to a new distortion pedal or something, you can feel that energy crackling on the air, the, “Hoo boy I’m gonna get noisy with this!” Knowing you’re about to go play dirty. Or even a Whammy pedal: “The squeals I’m gonna make on this thing will make Vai blush…” But the New Pedal Energy is different with an expression pedal, isn’t it? Different and more open-ended, because it’s not about what the pedal itself sounds like, but what it can unlock in your existing gear. Unbox a distortion pedal and you know you’re about to hear your guitar through distortion. Unbox an expression pedal and you don’t even know half the wacky stuff you’re going to be doing with this thing because it’s as…

Anyone familiar with a Fender Super Reverb will testify to this legendary amp’s big-ass tone, presence and clean headroom. The original formula of a pair of 6L6 power tubes and four ten-inch speakers gave the two-channel reverb/tremolo combo a sound that was irresistible to legions of blues and rock players from the mid ’60s and on. The Super Reverb was discontinued in 1982 and re-introduced in 2001, where it remains in Fender’s extensive amplifier line. The latest version of this is the Tone Master Super Reverb, which uses digital technology to re-create the circuitry and 45-watt output section that drives four Jensen P-10R alnico-magnet ten-inch speakers wired in two-ohm configuration as per the original spec. Fender’s designers maintained the Super’s high headroom by using a 200-watt digital power amp, which…

Fender approached Kurt Cobain about collaborating on the design of a guitar. Cobain was amused but also flattered by the proposal, and he quickly conceived and sketched a new design that combined features of his favourite guitars: a modified 1965 Fender Jaguar and a 1969 Fender Competition Mustang. The Nirvana guitarist called his creation the Jag-Stang. Fender delivered the first Jag-Stang prototype to Cobain in early 1994, and the guitarist used it for a handful of shows that year before he took his own life on April 5, 1994. Fender produced the Jag-Stang from 1995 through 2005 when it was discontinued, but Fender recently revived the model in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Nirvana’s breakthrough Nevermind album. The new version differs just slightly from the original…