Appreciating Joe Satriani
<p>I like to listen to instrumental electric guitar, and have a very<br />
large collection of the genre from the pioneering Jeff Beck albums of<br />
the 1970s forward, and including most of the output of Jeff Beck, Steve<br />
Morse, Eric Johnson, Steve Vai, Gary Hoey, Marc Bonilla, and half a<br />
dozen other guitar virtuosi.</p>
<p>The seldom-disputed king of this genre today is Joe Satriani, who<br />
has produced a string of excellent and often groundbreaking albums<br />
since his debut in 1986.  There are other guitarists who have had<br />
moments of brilliance exceeding anything in Satriani&#8217;s catalog (I<br />
think, for example, of Marc Bonilla&#8217;s astonishing <cite>EE<br />
Ticket</cite> album from 1992) but nobody else has sustained Joe&#8217;s<br />
level of quality over eighteen years and a dozen albums.</p>
<p>For those of you who have been living in a hole for fifteen years<br />
Joe Satriani definitely hails from the rock/blues end of the guitar<br />
spectrum rather than the jazz-fusion one &mdash; his technique is<br />
sometimes near to speed-metal.  His commercial success seems to be<br />
built on an ability to appeal to both intelligent metalheads and<br />
old jazz-fusion fans like me.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s my personal guide to appreciating Joe&#8217;s work.  It covers<br />
every track on all of his studio albums, but not the EPs or<br />
live-concert anthologies.  It&#8217;s aimed mainly at people who have<br />
heard parts of his music and would like to know where to go next, or<br />
who want to deepen their appreciation of what they&#8217;ve already heard.</p>
<p>One of the perils of being a virtuoso is that you can get so caught<br />
up in your own skill that it&#8217;s hard to know when to stop &mdash;<br />
musicality can get crowded out by meaningless elaboration.  This is a<br />
trap that lies in wait for all guitarists above a certain technical<br />
level; some (like, say, Yngwe Malmsteen or Tony McAlpine) fall into it<br />
to the point of near-unlistenability, and others are badly compromised<br />
by it but still able to turn out good work when they restrain<br />
themselves enough (Joe&#8217;s student Steve Vai leaps to mind).  Very few<br />
have the ability to sustain a flawlessly consistent balance between<br />
technique and musicality; Marc Bonilla managed it, Jeff Beck and Eric<br />
Johnson come very close.</p>
<p>Joe Satriani&#8217;s grasp on that happy medium is pretty good but prone<br />
to lapses.  I think he is acutely aware of this problem.  One of the<br />
themes you can see in his career development is how he struggles not<br />
to let his technique run away with him, sometimes reacting with a<br />
retreat into an obstinate minimalism or over-reliance on traditional<br />
forms (eight-bar blues, the 4/4 rock beat, etc.).  Gradually, over<br />
time, he gets better at avoiding these extremes.</p>
<p>Joe takes chances, and sometimes he fails.  Thus, this guide is not<br />
going to be an unbroken paean of praise. But one of the things that<br />
keeps me a fan is his very refusal to play safe, his determination to keep<br />
trying new things and pushing his own boundaries as a musician.  Joe<br />
shows a rare combination of talent, hard-working dedication to his<br />
craft, and artistic courage that is worthy of all praise.</p>
<p>One pattern that became apparent to me as I was compiling this<br />
guide is that it is always worth holding Joe&#8217;s song titles in mind as<br />
you listen to his stuff.  They are often valuable clues to his<br />
intentions.  Many of his pieces seem to have been written as<br />
soundtracks to go with a strong visual image to which the title is a<br />
pointer, and it can thus substantially increase your enjoyment to<br />
decode whatever references are in the title.</p>
<h3>Not Of This Earth (1986)</h3>
<p>This was Joe&#8217;s freshman album.  I first heard it after<br />
<cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite> and <cite>Flying In A Blue<br />
Dream</cite>, and it was fascinating with that experience to hear<br />
Joe&#8217;s style not quite yet fully developed.</p>
<p>The title track, <cite>Not Of This Earth</cite>, blends acoustic and<br />
electric guitar sounds in an interesting way that Joe would explore<br />
further in <cite>The Lords Of Karma</cite> on the next album.  It&#8217;s<br />
followed by <cite>The Snake</cite>, a rather funny tone poem about<br />
slithery things that manages to include references to both the<br />
<cite>Volga Boatmen</cite> and some death-metal tune I&#8217;ve never<br />
quite been able to place, I think by Black Sabbath.</p>
<p> <cite>Rubina</cite>is named after Joe&#8217;s wife. It is built around a<br />
simple, pretty melody but somewhat marred by a drum track that sounds<br />
mechanical and is mixed way too far up.  <cite>Memories</cite> is<br />
stronger, combining a reggae-like rhythm track with some raga-like and<br />
bluesy melodic influences to produce a unique and tasty sound.<br />
Satriani is finding his voice here. He continues to explore<br />
interesting territory with <cite>Brother John</cite>, an odd but<br />
pleasing little modal finger exercise.</p>
<p><cite>The Enigmatic</cite> is one of the two standout tracks on<br />
this album &mdash; tense, dissonant, weirdly inventive.  Joe&#8217;s bold use<br />
of atonality to depict an encounter with the alien is carried off<br />
beautifully and works well at both the technical and emotional<br />
levels.</p>
<p>After that, <cite>Driving At Night</cite> is positively reassuring as<br />
it reasserts the bluesy call-and-response pattern at the core of rock<br />
guitar.  We are no longer in alien darkness but rather in a soothing and<br />
familiar night.</p>
<p>But that night has Earth creatures in it too, and some of them can<br />
be pretty scary.  <cite>Hordes of Locusts</cite> is another tone-poem<br />
about creepy-crawlies, imbued with the faintly campy menace of a 1950s<br />
monster movie.  This piece is funny, but (as you&#8217;ll especially learn<br />
if you ever get to hear it live) it also rocks bone-crunchingly hard.<br />
It&#8217;s a standout.</p>
<p>The remaining two tracks are slight, almost finger exercises.<br />
<cite>New Day</cite> feels like dawn after the night of the locusts.<br />
<cite>Headless Horseman</cite> is a silly bit of business that refers<br />
to Washington Irving&#8217;s famous short story.</p>
<p>This was a very thought-provoking debut &mdash; uneven, but promising.<br />
That promise would be fulfilled with the next two albums.</p>
<h3>Surfing with The Alien (1987)</h3>
<p>This was my first introduction to Joe&#8217;s amazing talents, and seems<br />
more generally to have been the album that made his name and secured<br />
him a long-term fan base (his official bio describes it as the most<br />
commercially successful instrumental-guitar album since Jeff Beck&#8217;s<br />
genre-defining <cite>Wired</cite> in 1974).  The Satriani style is<br />
already fully developed here.</p>
<p>The title cut, <cite>Surfing With the Alien</cite>, is without a<br />
doubt one of the great instrumental rock guitar numbers of all time<br />
&mdash; a screaming hyperkinetic rave-up that goes straight over the<br />
top and then delivers everything it promises.  The album cover<br />
makes it obvious that the alien in question is the Silver Surfer<br />
of Marvel Comics fame, and you can hear him swooshing through space<br />
at a couple of points in the track.</p>
<p>The title <cite>Ice 9</cite> is a reference to an SF novel by Kurt<br />
Vonnegut in which a bizarre form of self-propagating ice freezes all<br />
the oceans of the world.  This track is not quite such a tour de force as<br />
the first but tasty all the same.  On almost any other album of<br />
instrumental guitar it would be a standout; here it tends to fade into<br />
the background in comparison to the flashier pieces.</p>
<p>My personal favorite on this album is <cite>Crushing Day</cite>.<br />
What makes this a standout is that there is not a wasted note in in<br />
it.  Though the first and second solo sections reach blistering<br />
intensity, Joe has his technique under perfect control here; he never<br />
loses sight of the underlying melodic idea for a nanosecond, and the<br />
result is tight and right. Half a dozen albums and nearly twenty years<br />
later it is still one of his best pieces of playing.</p>
<p><cite>Always With Me, Always With You</cite> is a quiet little<br />
number, this album&#8217;s equivalent of <cite>Rubina</cite>.  He hasn&#8217;t yet<br />
attained the simple lyricism and delicacy we&#8217;ll hear in<br />
<cite>Home</cite>, two albums on, but he&#8217;s reaching for it.</p>
<p><cite>Satch Boogie</cite> is another propulsive rave-up that stands<br />
comparison to the title track as a display of guitar pyrotechnics.<br />
Interestingly, what makes the whole piece work is a quiet section in<br />
the middle (about 1:44 in) that builds tension towards the ending.<br />
Joe has commented in an interview that a fan who disliked the<br />
quiet part once sent him a mix tape with the section deleted in an<br />
effort to prove his point.  &#8220;It sucked,&#8221; said Satriani, succinctly<br />
and correctly.</p>
<p><cite>Hill of the Skull</cite> is 1:48 of auditory comic book.  You<br />
can see the evil skull-shaped temple brooding on the hilltop, torches<br />
guttering in the great gaunt eyesockets&#8230;</p>
<p><cite>Circles</cite> is much more substantial, opening<br />
with a lovely acoustic-guitar appetizer that sets you up for a muscular<br />
electric main course in the manner of Led Zeppelin&#8217;s or Heart&#8217;s best.<br />
The loud-soft contrast is artfully handled, and like all of Joe&#8217;s<br />
best work this piece is distinguished by seventeen-jewel composition<br />
and exacting control of his instruments.</p>
<p><cite>Lords of Karma</cite> continues the hot streak, opening with<br />
sitar sounds and launching into a driving raga-influenced melody.  The<br />
exultant glissando guitar scream at about 1:42 is particularly<br />
lovely. At a couple of points in the piece the recurring sitar<br />
sounds make a pungent contrast to the guitar line.  The whole<br />
is as tasty as a good Indian curry.</p>
<p><cite>Midnight</cite>, by contrast, is as mannered as a Bach fugue,<br />
nearly a finger exercise.  It segues directly into the final track,<br />
<cite>Echoes</cite>, which returns to the meditative feel of<br />
<cite>Circles</cite> and finishes off the album in excellent style.</p>
<p>This is a great album, barely a dud track on it.  Even <cite>Hill of<br />
the Skull</cite> works in its silly way.  It remains among Joe&#8217;s two<br />
or three best, and is probably still the best introduction to his<br />
music.</p>
<h3>Flying in a Blue Dream (1989)</h3>
<p>This album starts off strong with the hypnotic feedback and<br />
acoustic rhythm guitars of the title track.  The long sustained<br />
electric guitar notes played over them contain subtle shifts of tambre<br />
and vibrato that would do Carlos Santana proud.  The interplay between<br />
the acoustic guitars and the electric lead line recalls<br />
<cite>Circles</cite> and works equally well here.  As with that track<br />
the effect is meditative, almost mystical.  And, no, Satriani himself<br />
doesn&#8217;t know what the little boy is saying in that background sample.</p>
<p>The next track calls itself mystical, <cite>The Mystical Potato Head<br />
Groove Thing</cite>, but isn&#8217;t.  The effect is more one of inspired<br />
whimsy, with subtle off-rhythms and a whirling, eccentric guitar line<br />
giving the piece the feel more of witty banter than anything else.  The<br />
bridge section at about 3:00 in echoes the melody of <cite>Surfing with<br />
the Alien</cite> but the effect is of commentary rather than self-imitation.<br />
The track closes with a classic smashing rock finish, very satisfying.</p>
<p>In <cite>Can&#8217;t Slow Down</cite>, Joe Satriani sings.<br />
Unfortunately, even the most dedicated Satriani fan generally reacts<br />
to his singing with a heartfelt wish that the man would shut up and<br />
play his guitar.  Fortunately, he does.</p>
<p><cite>Headless</cite> is just as embarrassing, a pointless retake of<br />
<cite>Headless Horseman</cite> from the first album that is only partly<br />
redeemed by Joe&#8217;s quiet, rather self-mocking chuckle at the end.</p>
<p>In <cite>Strange</cite>, Joe sings again.  The contrast between his<br />
clumsy vocals and the shimmering loveliness of the guitar bridges is<br />
almost painful to the ear.   Alas, the worst is yet to come.<br />
That worst is the next track, <cite>I Believe</cite>, possibly<br />
the most cringe-worthy opus Joe has ever committed to tape.  He sings<br />
again, wrapping an uncertain voice around lyrics that intend to be<br />
inspirational but come out mawkish.  A few lovely guitar bits cannot<br />
redeem this mess.</p>
<p>In the next track, <cite>One Big Rush</cite>, Joe blessedly does not sing.<br />
We&#8217;re back in the familiar territory of <cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite><br />
or <cite>Satch Boogie</cite> here.  It&#8217;s not as inventive as the album&#8217;s<br />
first two numbers but a good solid piece of work.  Probably the best bit<br />
is the last five seconds of coda.</p>
<p>On <cite>Big Bad Moon</cite>, Joe sings again. This time it works a<br />
little better, as he portrays some hapless geek who has become a<br />
werewolf and, far from considering it a curse, discovers <q>But I<br />
<em>like</em> it!</q>.  His fretboard antics over a steaming boogie<br />
grind rescue this track.</p>
<p><cite>The Feeling</cite> is 50 seconds of rootsy banjo.  This works<br />
pretty well, considering.</p>
<p>In <cite>The Phone Call</cite> Joe seems to have figured out that<br />
his weak singing voice works best as comedy.  This mini-soap-opera<br />
about a selfish and none-too-bright guy dumping his ditzy and<br />
gold-digging girlfriend is worth a chuckle or two.</p>
<p><cite>Day at the Beach (New Rays From an Ancient Sun)</cite> echoes<br />
<cite>Midnight</cite> from the last album, and works best as a sort of<br />
extended intro to <cite>Back to Shalla-Bal</cite>.  This track is<br />
straight-ahead leather-jacketed rock complete with a revving Harley.<br />
The motorcycle theme continues in the rather similar next<br />
track, <cite>Ride</cite>.  Joe sings again, managing not to botch<br />
the job too badly.  Still, one does wish he would stop.</p>
<p><cite>The Forgotten</cite> begins with a short finger exercise that<br />
is, like <cite>Day at the Beach</cite>, a preface to something more<br />
substantial.  Part two returns to the meditative, introverted feel of<br />
the title track, but with an emotionally powerful melody that feels<br />
almost like something a Romantic-era classical composer might have<br />
penned.  It&#8217;s up there with the first two tracks as a standout.</p>
<p><cite>The Bells of Lal</cite> is another two-part composition, but<br />
this one feels like noisy fragments that never quite come together or<br />
rise above the level of noodling.</p>
<p>,<cite>Into the Light</cite> by contrast, feels elegiac and<br />
graceful.  I think of cloudscapes suffused with sunlight when I hear<br />
this piece, and rather wish Joe had given it more than 2:29 of<br />
development.</p>
<p>This album is uneven, undisciplined.  Parts of it match and even<br />
exceed the quality of <cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite>, but a lot of<br />
it is experiments that should have been left on the studio floor.  Joe<br />
clearly needs somebody working with him to curb his excesses.</p>
<h3>The Extremist (1992)</h3>
<p>Perhaps Joe found that somebody.  This album returns to the consistent<br />
form of <cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite>; it&#8217;s neither as quirky nor<br />
as inventive as <cite>Flying in a Blue Dream</cite>, but full of energy<br />
and joy.</p>
<p><cite>Friends</cite>, <cite>The Extremist</cite>. and<br />
<cite>War</cite> are all good solid work, intricate and high-energy<br />
guitar explorations in the now-standard Satriani mold that reward<br />
repeated listening pretty well.  There&#8217;s some nice blues harp in the<br />
second track, but the third is probably the strongest of the three.</p>
<p><cite>Cryin&#8217;</cite> is a quiet, bluesy track with a prog-rock feel to<br />
it.  It&#8217;s well followed up by <cite>Rubina&#8217;s Blue Sky</cite>, a down-home<br />
delight that uses mandolins and acoustic guitars to evoke the feel<br />
of folk or bluegrass music. The last two minutes sets off the acoustic<br />
guitars against a singing, joyful electric-guitar line, then mysteriously<br />
fades out with a pibroch-like ending.</p>
<p><cite>Summer Song</cite> (which you can deduce from one of the the<br />
album-cover photos originally titled <cite>The Door Into Summer</cite><br />
after Robert Heinlein&#8217;s novel) was this album&#8217;s big radio single, a job<br />
it fulfills admirably well.  A tight and well-layered arrangement and<br />
immaculate production make this a crowd-pleaser.</p>
<p><cite>Tears In the Rain</cite> is another intricate finger exercise<br />
like <cite>Midnight</cite>, conducted this time on a nylon-string<br />
guitar.</p>
<p><cite>Why</cite> and <cite>Motorcycle Driver</cite> return to the basic<br />
style of propulsive and intricate guitar we&#8217;ve heard in the first three<br />
tracks and <cite>Summer Song</cite>.  Like those, these tracks are<br />
sunny and exuberant music that would sound great pouring out of a<br />
boom box at your next beach party.</p>
<p><cite>New Blues</cite> is a total contrast &mdash; a spare,<br />
introverted blues piece that fades into silence.  It foreshadows where<br />
the next studio album is going.</p>
<h3>Time Machine (1993)</h3>
<p>The first disk of this two disk set combines rarities, oddities,<br />
and unreleased tracks from old studio sessions.  The second is a<br />
collection of live performances.  The quality is uneven here; some of<br />
this stuff is the equivalent of doodling.  But for a serious fan this<br />
is definitely worth having, if only because it collects limited-release<br />
stuff like <cite>Dreaming #11</cite>.</p>
<p>Joe is generally pretty good at picking strong openings for his<br />
albums and <cite>Time Machine</cite> is no exception.  This exercise<br />
in massive-guitars-of-doom can bear comparison with his best work and<br />
is a standout track.  Following it, <cite>The Mighty Turtle Head</cite> is<br />
merely passable; the parts are OK but don&#8217;t seem to cohere<br />
well. <cite>All Alone</cite> works better; it&#8217;s a big blues tune in<br />
classic style.  One can easily imagine it as movie music.</p>
<p>On <cite>Banana Mango II</cite> Joe jams with world-beat rhythms.<br />
The result is loose, floaty and interesting, quite different from his<br />
usual sound. <cite>Thinking of You</cite> is a simple, pretty tune,<br />
lovely and lyrical, proving once again that Joe doesn&#8217;t need effects<br />
or elaborate arrangements to sound good &mdash; another standout<br />
track.</p>
<p>From the sublime to the ridiculous: <cite>Crazy</cite> is another<br />
one of those regrettable occasions on which Joe sings.  We live<br />
through it.</p>
<p><cite>Speed Of Light</cite> nails once again the joyous<br />
power-pop-like groove Joe found in <cite>Summer Song</cite>.  An<br />
unusual and interesting touch in this use is Joe&#8217;s use of wordless<br />
choral singing as a counterpoint to the guitar.</p>
<p>In <cite>Baroque</cite> Joe experiments with the idiom of classical<br />
guitar.  His execution is good but the production is heavy-handed; I<br />
think it would have worked better without the effects.</p>
<p><cite>Dweller On The Threshold</cite> is a Lovecraftian tone poem<br />
that is probably the closest approach to true speed metal in Joe&#8217;s oeuvre.<br />
He proves here that he could out-Metallica Metallica if he wanted to<br />
(Kirk Hammet was an early student of his in the 1970s).  The atonal<br />
alien from <cite>Enigmatic</cite> makes a cameo appearance.</p>
<p><cite>Banano Mango</cite> previsits the word-beat rhythms we heard<br />
earlier in <cite>Banano Mango II</cite>, but the guitar treatment is<br />
different in style.  Not as good, I don&#8217;t think. but it&#8217;s instructive<br />
and interesting to have both versions included.</p>
<p><cite>Dreaming #11</cite> takes us to another unusual place that<br />
can only be described as surrealist comedy funk.  The strain of sly,<br />
zany humor that flavors a lot of Joe&#8217;s music is in full evidence<br />
here.</p>
<p>The title of <cite>I am Become Death</cite> doubtless refers to Robert<br />
Oppennheimer&#8217;s famous quote from the Bhagavad-Gita at the first nuclear<br />
test in 1945. The piece is simultaneously grim, bathetic and jarring,<br />
a deliberately disjointed nightmare. On <cite>Saying Goodbye</cite> Joe sounds quite unlike himself and<br />
so much like Jeff Beck in a quieter moment that I think this piece<br />
must be an intentional tribute.  The first disc then finishes with<br />
<cite>Woodstock Jam</cite>, which is also utterly like anything else<br />
Joe has ever recorded, sixteen minutes of atonal psychedelia that<br />
plays like the soundtrack for a drug dream.</p>
<p>The main thing the second disc demonstrates is that Joe plays his<br />
tunes live with great fidelity to the studio versions, so I won&#8217;t<br />
review all of these separately here.</p>
<h3>Joe Satriani (1995)</h3>
<p>In contrast with the sunny vibe of <cite>The Extremist</cite>, this<br />
album seems moody, sad, even depressed.  I have no hard information, but I<br />
suspect Joe might have been going through a rough couple of years as<br />
this one was recorded.</p>
<p><cite>Cool #9</cite> <cite>If</cite>, and <cite>Down, Down, Down</cite><br />
set the tone &mdash; deeply bluesy, well-executed, somehow rather<br />
dark.</p>
<p><cite>Luminous Flesh Giants</cite> is one of the standout tracks on<br />
this album &mdash; angry, powerful stuff and doubtless a big<br />
live-concert number.</p>
<p><cite>S.M.F.</cite> returns to the deep introspective groove of the<br />
first three tracks, burrowing into the classic 8-bar blues as though it&#8217;s a<br />
refuge from something.  One of the problems with this album is that these<br />
four tracks are all too similar and tend to blur together in one&#8217;s memory.</p>
<p><cite>Look My Way</cite> is one of Joe&#8217;s occasional comedy numbers.  He<br />
sings, badly.  But the composition is such that bad singing is sort of<br />
appropriate.</p>
<p><cite>Home</cite> is a surprising island of calm and beauty.  It&#8217;s<br />
the refuge that a lot of the rest of this album seems to be looking for,<br />
and a standout track.</p>
<p><cite>Moroccan Sunset</cite> sounds a little happier, too.  The<br />
melody line is indeed middle-Eastern flavored in spots.  The rhythm<br />
guitars share the dark, fuzzed-out flavor we hear in many of the other<br />
arrangements on this album.  Nevertheless this is another standout<br />
track.</p>
<p>In <cite>Killer Bee Bop</cite> Joe seems to be trying to capture<br />
some of the flavor of bebop jazz &mdash; the opening base line<br />
certainly suggests that.  This is a fast, noisy track, interesting<br />
but at times rushed and incoherent-sounding.</p>
<p>The first section of <cite>Slow Down Blues</cite> slides even<br />
deeper into the blues idiom, with a spare and mostly acoustic<br />
arrangement featuring a dialogue between Joe&#8217;s understated electric<br />
lead and a blues harmonica.  All this recalls <cite>New Blues</cite><br />
from the previous album, and seems deeply sad.  Things pick up some<br />
in the last four minutes as the track launches into a steady electric<br />
boogie with a big finish.</p>
<p><cite>(You&#8217;re) My World</cite> is another simple, effective tune<br />
that seems (like <cite>Home</cite>) to express some kind of peace or<br />
resolution.  The effect is very beautiful and a standout track.</p>
<p>The album ends with <cite>Sittin&#8217; Round</cite>, another slow and<br />
sad blues reminiscent of the first section of <cite>Slow Down<br />
Blues</cite>.</p>
<p>Emotionally, Joe had nowhere to go but up after this album.</p>
<h3>Crystal Planet (1998)</h3>
<p>And up he goes, in what is certainly his best album since<br />
<cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite>.  Whatever troubles informed<br />
<cite>Joe Satriani</cite> are gone; he seems to reach a new high in<br />
energy and inventiveness here.</p>
<p>The album opens strong with <cite>Up in the Sky</cite>, a fast and<br />
tight little number built around an odd guitar lick with an almost<br />
surf-rock feel to it.  The tastiness continues with <cite>House Full<br />
of Bullets</cite> and <cite>Crystal Planet</cite>, which don&#8217;t break any<br />
particularly new ground but are well-composed works that deliver the kind<br />
of virtuosity Joe&#8217;s fans have come to expect.</p>
<p><cite>Love Thing</cite> slows the pace a little to do a more<br />
melodic exploration in the mode of <cite>Home</cite> or <cite>(You&#8217;re) </p>
<p>My World</cite> from the previous album.  It&#8217;s followed by<br />
<cite>Trundrumbalind</cite> which moves a bit up-tempo again but<br />
sustains great intensity of feeling and is one of the standout tracks<br />
of this album.  The last minute is especially interesting.</p>
<p><cite>Lights of Heaven</cite> starts off quietly, but the<br />
fanfare-like bit at about 1:13 leads into one of Joe&#8217;s best sustained<br />
stretches of composition ever, one in which occasional hushed stretches<br />
serve to build tension for soaring guitar lines that resolve them wonderfully.<br />
The shimmering finale in the last 40 seconds is magnificent.  This is<br />
possibly the strongest single track on the album.</p>
<p><cite>Raspberry Jam Delta Vee</cite> is not quite as impressive,<br />
but it delivers the goods.  The break using string and cello tambres<br />
about four minutes in is unusual, and the track finishes strong with<br />
dual leads and and interesting use of what sounds like ring<br />
modulators.</p>
<p><cite>Ceremony</cite> returns to the up-tempo pace and<br />
arpeggio-rich solos typical of the first three tracks, but there is<br />
nothing especially distinguishing about it.  <cite>With Jupiter In<br />
Mind</cite>, on the other hand, is a standout track with a strong and<br />
attractive melody on which Joe works some interesting transformations<br />
before returning to the opening version.  Fat rhythm guitars back up<br />
a powerful finale.</p>
<p><cite>Secret Prayer</cite> is merely ordinary for this album,<br />
which is to say it is better than most guitarists could manage<br />
on their best days ever.  <cite>Train of Angels</cite> opens interestingly<br />
with military-style drumming and remains tasty even after switching to<br />
a traditional rock beat; the second solo beginning at about 2:00 is<br />
especially nice.  <cite>A Piece of Liquid </cite> is quiet and restful,<br />
making interesting use of a catchy South-American-flavored rhythm.</p>
<p><cite>Psycho Monkey</cite> is a distortion-fest with a deliberately<br />
heavy attack; the dog-whistle feedback at the end is reminiscent of the<br />
title track from <cite>Flying In A Blue Dream</cite>.</p>
<p><cite>Time</cite> is a clever tone poem in which the staccato<br />
4-chord figure the rhythm guitars repeat seems intended to evoke a<br />
ticking clock.  There&#8217;s a lot more going on, here, though, and it<br />
repays several listens to find out what.</p>
<p><cite>Z.Z.&#8217;s Song</cite> ends the album with a resonant acoustic solo<br />
piece that seems to use silence as much as sound.</p>
<p>There really isn&#8217;t a weak track on this whole album, which is especially<br />
impressive since it runs to 15 of them.  It&#8217;s probably the right one<br />
to buy second, after <cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite>.</p>
<h3>Engines of Creation (2000)</h3>
<p>The title of this album seems to be a reference to to K. Eric<br />
Drexler&#8217;s seminal book on nanotechnology; the cover art and<br />
the song titles suggest that Joe had a lot of SFnal imagery in mind<br />
when composing it.  Despite that promising start, a lot of Satriani<br />
fans would say this album shouldn&#8217;t have been made.  In it, Joe seems<br />
to be trying to understand electronica and house music.  The result is, alas,<br />
cold and mechanical-sounding in comparison to the rest of his work;<br />
drum machines and synthesizers almost drown out his guitar.</p>
<p>Despite that, this album has some excellent moments.  And even when<br />
it doesn&#8217;t work, I think Joe deserves praise for being willing to take some<br />
risks.  Another <cite>Crystal Planet</cite> or <cite>Surfing With The<br />
Alien</cite> would have been more of a crowd-pleaser &mdash; but at<br />
this point Joe could probably crank out ordinary guitar virtuosity in<br />
his sleep and would not necessarily have grown as a musician by taking<br />
that easy path.</p>
<p><cite>Devil&#8217;s Slide</cite> tells you right away you are not in for the<br />
usual, with its drum machine and synthesizer-led attack. Parts of it achieve<br />
a chill, haunting beauty.  <cite>Flavor Crystal 7</cite> is very similar,<br />
but with a more up-front guitar line that makes it more interesting.<br />
Both tracks take us far from the rock/blues/metal roots of Joe&#8217;s style;<br />
he displays the superb musicianship we&#8217;d expect, but the results seem<br />
at times unnervingly soulless and antiseptic.</p>
<p><cite>Borg Sex</cite> is more of the same, with a growling guitar<br />
line that manages (probably not by accident) to sound rather like<br />
industrial noise.  Joe seems to use this one fairly frequently in<br />
concert.</p>
<p><cite>Until We Say Goodbye</cite>, by contrast, is much more like a<br />
normal Satriani track; some superfluous electronic effects in the<br />
background fail to step on an appealing and rather jazz-tinged<br />
melody. The pizzicato strings in the last eight seconds are a nice<br />
touch.</p>
<p><cite>Attack</cite> puts us right back in the territory of<br />
<cite>Devil&#8217;s Slide</cite>, which it rather resembles.  The break<br />
about two minutes in, ornamented with little sequencer bits and<br />
drum-machine licks, is probably Joe&#8217;s most effective use of<br />
electronica idiom.</p>
<p><cite>Champagne?</cite> is a bit of clowning in which glassy synth<br />
voices are set against a bouncing baseline and bluesy guitar.  It<br />
changes style abruptly at about 2:04 when the drum machines turn on,<br />
but returns to being an appealingly silly romp in the last three<br />
minutes.  The last section changes styles again, offering us a jazzy<br />
solo with beautiful arpeggios and an odd roots-rock sort of<br />
finish vaguely reminiscent of Creedence.</p>
<p><cite>Clouds Race Across the Sky</cite> is a surprise and a<br />
standout, laying a beautifully simple guitar line over an infectious<br />
South-American-flavored rhythm track.  The effect is tranquil and<br />
lovely.</p>
<p><cite>The Power Cosmic 2000</cite> is a two-part invention.  In it,<br />
Joe seems to be trying to fuse electronica influences into his basic<br />
style (the first guitar line in part two will remind you of <cite>The<br />
Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing</cite>) but succeeds mainly in<br />
sounding chilly and remote.  By contrast, the synthesizer<br />
instrumentation of <cite>Slow And Easy</cite> fails to completely<br />
suppress some moments of quiet beauty.</p>
<p><cite>Engines of Creation</cite> is a gradually building crescendo<br />
that unaccountably cuts out just as it should be reaching a climax.<br />
Too bad; there are some good moments on the way there, and the track<br />
does better at integrating synthesizers with guitar and base than most<br />
of went before.  But, like the album as a whole, the track is a<br />
brave experiment that doesn&#8217;t end well.</p>
<p>This is still the most difficult Satriani album to enjoy, and may be<br />
for hard-core fans and completists only.  But I like it better than I<br />
did when I first heard it.  It will take several listenings before<br />
you can get past the electronic clutter to what Joe is trying to<br />
achieve, but doing so has some rewards.</p>
<h3>Strange Beautiful Music (2002)</h3>
<p>If a comparative failure like <cite>Engines of Creation</cite> was<br />
what Joe needed to grow, this album tells us it was worth it.  I think<br />
it&#8217;s his best ever, equalling <cite>Crystal Planet</cite> and<br />
<cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite> for creativity and melodic<br />
invention and showing a maturity and grace neither previous album<br />
can match.</p>
<p><cite>Oriental Melody</cite> continues Joe&#8217;s flirtation with modal<br />
scales and time signatures derived from Middle Eastern and Indian<br />
music.  It&#8217;s a good start to the album, which puts some creative<br />
distance between Joe and his roots as a rock player.</p>
<p><cite>Belly Dancer</cite> moves back towards rock rhythms, but an<br />
eastern touch is still present in the melody line.  The track centers<br />
on lovely series of arpeggios at about 3:08.  The sitar tambre that Joe<br />
used so effectively in tracks like <cite>Lords of Karma</cite> reappears<br />
as a nice bit of background color towards the end.</p>
<p>We get a third beautiful melody in <cite>Starry Night</cite>,<br />
which though stylistically reminiscent of <cite>Home</cite> from the<br />
<cite>Extremist</cite> album is nicely original.</p>
<p><cite>Chords of Life</cite> is themed around a nice bit of<br />
acoustic-guitar rhythm work that appears in it twice and dominates<br />
the finale.  This is a crisp and satisfying little number in<br />
which the electric lead gets its licks in but, for once, takes a back<br />
seat to other elements of the composition.</p>
<p><cite>Mind Storms</cite> is more in the conventional Satriani<br />
idiom, and a fine example of same.  The alien from<br />
<cite>Enigmatic</cite> makes a brief reappearance at about 2:00<br />
in.</p>
<p><cite>Sleep Walk</cite> covers a Santo &amp; Johnny hit from 1959,<br />
archetypal syrupy fifties pop.  I have a strong personal aversion to<br />
this particular sound, but there is no denying that Joe (with some<br />
help from, of all people, Robert Fripp) nails the style dead-on. If<br />
it has to be done at all, it should be done this well.</p>
<p><cite>New Last Jam</cite> is another superior Satriani slice of<br />
fretboard frenzy, unremarkable only because it&#8217;s jostling so much<br />
good material on this album.  <cite>Mountain Song</cite>, immediately<br />
following, is even better.  His normal idiom has never sounded hotter.</p>
<p><cite>What Breaks A Heart</cite> begins with what seems to be an<br />
experiment in vox humana guitar; the effect is almost like wordless<br />
singing.  The middle section that begins at 1:19 builds to reggae<br />
rhythms and more vox-humana playfulness.  The whole finishes with a<br />
very pretty ride-out as Joe riffs away with gleeful zest.</p>
<p><cite>Seven String</cite> takes us back to basic rock&#8217;n&#8217;roll crunch<br />
with a somewhat Southern flavor &mdash; one can imagine Lynrd Skynrd or<br />
.38 Special playing this, if they had ever come within a light year of<br />
having the chops to try.  It&#8217;s followed by <cite>Hill Groove</cite>, a<br />
bluesy piece that features some particularly nice interplay between<br />
lead guitar and electric base.</p>
<p><cite>The Traveller</cite> has something of a prog-rock feel to it;<br />
listen for the nice use of harmonics at about 1:58.  And the album<br />
finishes strong with <cite>Journey</cite>, another melodic and excellent<br />
track without a waste motion in it.</p>
<p>The music on this album is so consistently good that it&#8217;s hard to<br />
pick standouts.  Pressed, I&#8217;d have to pick <cite>Mind Storms</cite> and<br />
<cite>Seven String</cite>, but there are several other tracks that give<br />
these a serious tussle.</p>
<p>With this album, Joe seems to have almost completely banished his<br />
occasional tendency to get lost in his technique.  All of these tracks<br />
have a well-seasoned restraint about them, to a degree that was only<br />
true of exceptional pieces like <cite>Crushing Day</cite> in his<br />
earlier work.</p>
<h3>Is There Love In Space (2004)</h3>
<p><cite>Is There Love In Space</cite> is a big contrast with<br />
<cite>Strange Beautiful Music</cite>.  It&#8217;s a neoprimitive crunchfest<br />
of fat, distorted rhythm guitars that begs to be played at<br />
room-filling volume.  Satriani is out to remind us that, by damn, he<br />
is a <em>rock</em> guitarist &mdash; and he succeeds.</p>
<p>The first track, <cite>Gnaah!</cite>, is a piece of sly humor.  You<br />
can hear the title gnaah as a repeated rising note in the song&#8217;s main<br />
lick.  <cite>Up In Flames</cite> is a loose bluesy howl that has good<br />
moments but some tendency to fall into mere noodling.  Much in these<br />
will sound familiar to long-time fans.</p>
<p>Track three, <cite>Hands in The Air</cite>, is a standout &mdash; a<br />
stomping, shouting rock&#8217;n&#8217;roll rave-up that has &#8220;arena-filler&#8221; written<br />
on it in letters of fire.  Fuck yeah, turn those Marshalls up to 11!</p>
<p>It&#8217;s interesting to contrast <cite>Hands in The Air</cite> with<br />
<cite>Luminous Flesh Giants</cite> from the <cite>Joe Satriani</cite><br />
album.  These two tracks are stylistically and structurally similar, but<br />
what a huge difference in emotional tone!  Where the older one is<br />
dark, brooding and ominous, the newer one is a big joyful noise.</p>
<p>In <cite>Lifestyle</cite> Satriani accomplishes a personal first by<br />
by managing to sing without sucking.  His voice actually sounds good<br />
run through a chorus box over a basic three-chord romp.  The lyrics<br />
are pretty funny, too.</p>
<p>The title track <cite>Is There Love In Space</cite>, gives us a<br />
quieter and more reflective moment, especially in the final section<br />
about 4:00 in which takes us back towards Joe&#8217;s jazz influences.<br />
<cite>If I Could Fly</cite> continues in a similar vein, firming up to<br />
a steady rock groove around which Joe dances in trademark fashion.<br />
There&#8217;s nothing especially novel here but the effect is quite<br />
pleasant.</p>
<p><cite>The Souls Of Distortion</cite> takes us back to the Land of the<br />
Monster Stomp, at a slower tempo than <cite>Hands in The Air</cite><br />
but with tasty use of a wah-wah pedal.  The fading feedback blare at the<br />
end is just right.</p>
<p>Look Up is lyrical and quiet, resembling <cite>Rubina&#8217;s<br />
Song</cite><cite> and </cite><cite>Always With Me, Always With You</cite> in flavor.</p>
<p><cite>I Like The Rain</cite>, unfortunately, demonstrates that<br />
<cite>Lifestyle</cite> was probably a fluke; Joe sings and sucks.  You&#8217;ll<br />
be reminded of <cite>Ride</cite> from <cite>Flying In A Blue Dream</cite>,<br />
but he did it better it the first time.</p>
<p><cite>Searching</cite> is another standout track.  It opens with a<br />
hypnotic ostinato reminiscent of Ted Nugent&#8217;s<br />
<cite>Stranglehold</cite> and holds to that line relentlessly amidst<br />
flurries of manic noodling and blares of feedback.  You get the<br />
feeling this was recorded as a late-night jam-session with everybody<br />
half wasted, and you are right there with them.</p>
<p><cite>Bamboo</cite> will remind you of <cite>Midnight</cite> from<br />
<cite>Surfing With The Alien</cite> or <cite>Tears In The Rain</cite><br />
from <cite>The Extremist</cite>.  There&#8217;s some interesting and subtle<br />
use of what sounds like reverse echo at about 3:25 in.</p>
<p>In some ways this album doesn&#8217;t compare well with the previous one;<br />
there is less variety and originality here than there was in<br />
<cite>Strange Beautiful Music</cite>.  It&#8217;s got more in the way of<br />
simple, turn-it-up-loud visceral thrills, though.  If Joe was out to<br />
prove that he can rock the house down better than 3/4ths of the<br />
spoiled children who call themselves &#8216;metal&#8217; acts, he sure<br />
succeeded.</p>
