Most technical instrumental album

circle x

circle x

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I got the idea for this thread from the "which solo should I learn" thread. The premise is to offer opinions of your favorite/most technical (and still musical) albums. Here is an excerpt:

Originally Posted by circle x View Post
I found out Petrucci was doing an album "not as" Dream Theater with Portnoy, Levin, and Jordan Rudess. I challenge anyone on this forum, or in this galaxy that can find an album that puts every player at every position to shame as these guys did. I mean, I thought Portnoy and Petrucci would steal the show but the bass and keys are beyond what should be capable.
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No arguments, it's a tough preposition. You can toss names like Spiral Architect or Cynic around (and come to think of it, Frederik Thorendal's Special Defects - Sol Niger Within is mindblowing for a whole different set of reasons).
That said, my favorite instrumental prog album is Gordian Knot's "Emergent." Sean Malone is up there with the best of them, technically, but it's also way more about groove and mood than LTE. Worth a listen.
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I vote for LTE!!!!
 
circle x said:
I got the idea for this thread from the "which solo should I learn" thread. The premise is to offer opinions of your favorite/most technical (and still musical) albums. Here is an excerpt:




I vote for LTE!!!!
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I would agree with the 2 Liquid Tension Experiment releases. They're always active in my rotation.

Lately I've been grabbing up and listening to everything by Neal Morse. Awesome prog stuff on all his albums. FWIW--Portnoy is the drummer for all Neal's solo releases, so that says something about what he's doing musically.
 
Spiral Architect and Cynic are defnintely good ones.
Spastic Ink
Blotted Science
Canvas Solaris
Behold...the Arctopus

Planet X can be pretty technical.

This is my favorite genre, but I'm having a mental block right now.
 
Oops...just realized the thread was supposed to be about instrumentals, and I threw out Neal Morse. He's a singer (besides a writer and multi-instrumentalist) so his stuff is vocal oriented.

As you were...
 
It depends how you want to emphasize technicality. Sheer speed? Rhythmic interplay?

In the guitar camp, I haven't heard anyone who can match Rusty Cooley in terms of raw speed - there's no way in hell that man's human. At least, I tell myself that so I don't have to quit, lol. Across the board, then LTE is definitely a contender, although a number of the other bands mentioned here deserve to be mentioned. Also, while blast beats turn me off enough that I can't really recommend anyone by name, a number of death metal bands get pretty technically intense, too.

For rhythmic complexity, then the picture changes a bit. LTE is definitely pretty intense, technically, but really they stay pretty straight, rhythmically - when they do play in a different time signature, they're pretty on the beat. Meshuggah sort of epitomizes the "other" form of technical precision for me - I can't even begin to count half of their stuff. Frederik Thorendal's "Sol Niger Within" project deserves a nod here, for the combination of complexm polymetric riffing (the drums and guitars are often in different, complimentary time signatures) and precise offbeat syncopations, coupled with the occasional excellent Holdsworth-inspired lead. Though, again, there's a number of non-instrumental tracks there, too.

There's a whole slew of bands that take this higher degree of rhythmic complexity and add more solo-driven sections, too - whoever mentioned Blotted Science, great band to bring up in this context.

Anyway, if I emphasise the "still musical" part, hands down my favorite instrumental prog album is the second Gordian Knot disc, "Emergent." It's just a gorgeous album, and incredibly musical, considering the genre - normally a 9 minute solo "Chapman Stick and Echoplex" piece would be the sort of thing you'd skip on a prog album, but "Grace" is actually one of the highlights, IMO.
 
On a side note, all you fans of Gordian Knot owe it to yourselves to check out "Torn Between Dimensions" by At War With Self.

It could pass as the 3rd Gordian Knot album.
Snelwar, Manring, and Zonder. It's great.
 
metalhead28 said:
On a side note, all you fans of Gordian Knot owe it to yourselves to check out "Torn Between Dimensions" by At War With Self.

It could pass as the 3rd Gordian Knot album.
Snelwar, Manring, and Zonder. It's great.
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Interesting... Zonder's played on some other stuff I've really dug (outside of the obvious FW material, he played on a couple Chroma Key albums,. and I think he's scheduled for the OSI that's currently in production), so I'll definitely check it out.
 
It's so strange to me about Petrucci. For the life of me, I cannot extrude one bit of emotion or passion from his playing. It's simply lifeless to me. I don't know how else to put it. He's clean, fast as hell, and all that, but his note choice, his phrasing, etc. just doesn't speak to me in the least.

And this isn't to say that I don't like any technical players. I can listen to a player like Holdsworth, who's much farther "out there" but just as technical (well, on the legato side at least), and I can hear all kinds of emotion in his playing. To that end, "Devil Take the Hindmost" is one of the most amazing guitar solos ever committed to record, IMO.

I dunno, it's just weird. Petrucci is one of the biggest "I don't get it" players for me out there. (Portnoy and Neil Peart as drummers are the same way for me too, but that's a different subject.)

Just my opinion, obviously---no disrespect intended. Carry on.
 
famous beagle said:
It's so strange to me about Petrucci. For the life of me, I cannot extrude one bit of emotion or passion from his playing. It's simply lifeless to me. I don't know how else to put it. He's clean, fast as hell, and all that, but his note choice, his phrasing, etc. just doesn't speak to me in the least.

And this isn't to say that I don't like any technical players. I can listen to a player like Holdsworth, who's much farther "out there" but just as technical (well, on the legato side at least), and I can hear all kinds of emotion in his playing. To that end, "Devil Take the Hindmost" is one of the most amazing guitar solos ever committed to record, IMO.

I dunno, it's just weird. Petrucci is one of the biggest "I don't get it" players for me out there. (Portnoy and Neil Peart as drummers are the same way for me too, but that's a different subject.)

Just my opinion, obviously---no disrespect intended. Carry on.
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I've said that before myself and even though I like Dream Theater I was never really that into his playing style. It's like I know every note that is going to come next or something and that ruins it for me. It changed a little when I saw him live a couple years ago on the G3 tour. He played his solo stuff and I connected with it a bit better, but he's still just not really there for me - and I'm a big fan of technical players.

+1 on Devil Take the Hindmost. ;)
 
famous beagle said:
It's so strange to me about Petrucci. For the life of me, I cannot extrude one bit of emotion or passion from his playing. It's simply lifeless to me. I don't know how else to put it. He's clean, fast as hell, and all that, but his note choice, his phrasing, etc. just doesn't speak to me in the least.

And this isn't to say that I don't like any technical players. I can listen to a player like Holdsworth, who's much farther "out there" but just as technical (well, on the legato side at least), and I can hear all kinds of emotion in his playing. To that end, "Devil Take the Hindmost" is one of the most amazing guitar solos ever committed to record, IMO.

I dunno, it's just weird. Petrucci is one of the biggest "I don't get it" players for me out there. (Portnoy and Neil Peart as drummers are the same way for me too, but that's a different subject.)

Just my opinion, obviously---no disrespect intended. Carry on.
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I forgive you.

Seriously, as much as I love Petrucci (and Portnoy for that matter) I hate it when folks argue these things like they're absolute. So I won't argue with you! They're not absolute. They're all subjective. So how can I disagree with your opinion?

I think that's part of what makes music so cool. (Besides, there's lot of more accepted guys than Petrucci that make my "I don't get it" list.) :D
 
I won't make an arguement about "most technical ever" but I want to give a shoutout to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. They have been returning to my rotation every so often for over 30 years. I used to be gaga over John McLaughlin but it's Billy Cobham that keeps drawing me back in.
 
I don't know how might it would be ranked, but the two Vital Tech Tones releases are pretty technical. It's a collaboration with Steve Smith, Scott Henderson, and Victor Wooten. Speaking of Wooten, Flecktones releases tend to be pretty technical, though they don't have a guitar player usually, so maybe they're not the right choice for this forum. I have that "Christopher Parkening Plays Bach" record and NEVER get tired of it, that's pretty effing technical!
 
tc4b said:
I don't know how might it would be ranked, but the two Vital Tech Tones releases are pretty technical. It's a collaboration with Steve Smith, Scott Henderson, and Victor Wooten. Speaking of Wooten, Flecktones releases tend to be pretty technical, though they don't have a guitar player usually, so maybe they're not the right choice for this forum. I have that "Christopher Parkening Plays Bach" record and NEVER get tired of it, that's pretty effing technical!
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I immediately thought of the Vital Tech Tones when I saw this thread and along the same lines Vital Information with Frank Gambale who's a pretty technical player in my book.
 
I know you're talking about "most technical," but my perfect mix of technique/tone/melodic has to be Neil Zaza. He can rip off great shred runs, then the next line is just a soaring melody dripping with tone. Makes me keep practicing.
 
I just put on my body armor and helmet to avoid the barrage of gunfire I am about to receive:

Although a vocalist, singer, songwriter...

John Mayer blew me away as a technical guitarist. I saw him at the Red Rocks in Colorado 2 years ago. Holy crap. I mean, I really didn't WANT to like him. Talk about technical. Has anyone heard him play "Lenny" or "The Wind Cries Mary?" I know I know, way off topic here but I figured he was worth a mention.
 
circle x said:
I just put on my body armor and helmet to avoid the barrage of gunfire I am about to receive:

Although a vocalist, singer, songwriter...

John Mayer blew me away as a technical guitarist. I saw him at the Red Rocks in Colorado 2 years ago. Holy crap. I mean, I really didn't WANT to like him. Talk about technical. Has anyone heard him play "Lenny" or "The Wind Cries Mary?" I know I know, way off topic here but I figured he was worth a mention.
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Agreed. Seen him live several times. His shows are worth infinitely more than his albums. I took a big Guster fan (who hates John Mayer) to see them together a few years back, and even he picked up a copy of the live CD that was put out after the tour.
 
metalhead28 said:
Spiral Architect and Cynic are defnintely good ones.
Spastic Ink
Blotted Science
Canvas Solaris
Behold...the Arctopus

Planet X can be pretty technical.

This is my favorite genre, but I'm having a mental block right now.
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+1 Wow, I though I was the only other person in the world that likes Blotted Science - that is one insanely technical band. Odd meters and mathmatical riffs ala Meshugga but with the addition of melody and crazy jazz inspired solos and a huge number of riff changes.
 
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