RON THAL/THE ADVENTURES OF BUMBLEFOOT

I first discovered Ron Thal aka Bumblefoot (now playing with Guns N Roses) on Shrapnel Records' virtuoso guitarist showcase CD "Ominious Guitarists From The Unknown." Out of the 10 or so guitarists featured, one stood out like a sore thumb, or should I say foot. That song was "Chopin Fantasie" and as the title suggests it is based on a Chopin song "Scherzo No 1 in B minor" but adds twists and turns and even multi-genres to the extremely precise and creative cut. I was hooked. I immediately sought out other albums beginning with his first release titled THE ADVENTURES OF BUMBLEFOOT

After one listen, I was blown away. How could a guitarist be this good and why was he so obscure and unknown? This is the album that showed me that one can be a virtuoso in ALL the genres often simultaneously. Bumblefoot successfully fuses rock and metal vibrancy with pop sensibilities and progressive layerings and outbursts, jazzy rhythms and chords, funk, flamenco and even ragtime, often with sounds I don't think existed before all jumbled together in not a chaotic way, but in a logical amazingly complex way. In short, imagine Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Mr. Bungle and maybe Django Rheinhardt all fused together into one person. That is the closest analogy I can think of in describing this album. To make it even more original he built all his guitars himself. He is proudly displaying his famous Swiss cheese guitar on the back cover.

Although the production on this is very good, this is a one-man show recorded entirely on a sixteen-track and does contain drum machines and synths for horns. Never bothers me since it's done so well. A masterpiece of musical masturbation if there ever was one

Since there no other reviews on this album I will give a short description of each cut as they are all so very different. All the songs are named after animal diseases (his wife is a veterinarian)

1. Bumblefoot..... Jazzy-funky metal. Lots of twists and turns and soloing. Expect the unexpected but in a pleasing way.

2. Orf.....One of my favorites. Pastoral guitar makes you feel like your flying on a breeze accompanied by strange breaks, alien solos and liberal use of a thimble

3. Scrapie.....A more straight-on jazzy rocker with less progressive tendencies but bass heavy and catchy

4. Blue Tongue.....Another favorite. More jazz-funk metal with skat type vocal breaks, dueling guitars, call-and-response guitars with bass, audience type shouting and of course, scorching solos

5. Limberneck.....A little ditty that is a kinda countrified ragtime piece. Very short, but very pleasant

6. Q Fever.....Anyone for 70s funk Bumblefoot style? Beefy bass funk with progressive time signatures, odd solos, vocals as an instrument. Another favorite!

7. Strawberry Footrot.....Another straight-on jazzy rocker with unexpected additions

8. Ick.....Flamenco and prog metal playing together like good little kids. Excellent use of drum machine

9. Malignant Carbuncle.....Backmasking guitar wankery. Not what you expect!

10. Rinderpest.....The ballad. Time to relax before the next cut. One of my least favorites but has grown on me

11. Strangles.....The most progressive. The most frenetic. I'm not sure how to describe this. It is like nothing I have ever heard before. An all-time favorite! Makes me think of aliens on speed

12. Fistulous Withers.....A lugubrious sounding closer (a pre-mystery track successor). A reflective slower piece. Not highlighting much except for the mood

13. * 14. *Shell On The Sand.....Although these are listed on here, they are simply embedded in track 12 on the original release as mystery tracks. I'll let you discover their mystery for yourselves. Maybe it's different on the re-release

Long out of print until recently, the re-release contains bonus tracks of the "Wild Woody" soundtrack, a SEGA game from the 90s

What can I say? Thumbs way up on this one. One of my all-time favorite albums. Despite being a one-man project this album sounds full. More creativity displayed on this one album than most bands muster up in an entire career.

Ronald Jay Blumenthal is one of the most inventive guitarists I know. He shortened his name to Ron Thal, and he also goes by Bumblefoot. The man is from NY and he is multi-talented. He almost does it all here on his 1995 debut. The cover art, the production, compositions, performance and drum programming. There is a guest adding timbales on "Ick", and some guest slap bass and narration on 'Bumblefoot". There is some keyboards offering horn-like sounds on 3 tracks, along with piano on "Blue Tongue".

But this really is about Ron's incredible performance on his guitars. No vocals other than grunts, groans and the odd shout out on the opener "Bumblefoot". The 12 song titles all represent an animal disease. And those 12 diseases are represented on the cover art by 12 different characters. This was recorded in Ron's basement on his digital 16-track from August to October 1994, except for three tracks which were recorded earlier. This clocks in at around 45 minutes, and I do have a top three to talk about.

I feel the album gets off on the wrong foot(haha) with "Bumblefoot". I mean it's a great song, but those silly shout outs of "Bumblefoot!" several times are annoying. Hey, he was a kid here. And Ron is about entertaining, and the man is funny. I just feel like this is the one track I'd skip if I did that. The rest is gravy. The top three include that second song "Orf" which would have been a great opener. It just sounds so much better, and keep in mind that "Bumblefoot" song was recorded earlier.

I find "Orf" so uplifting when Thal is soaring on that guitar. When it slows right down we get some complex guitar, and I love his tone here. Repeated themes, and I really like those guitar expressions around 3 1/2 minutes. "Strawberry Footrot" is another top three. Love the heavy sound, and again the guitar tone. Just a great guitar track really. Finally, "Rinderpest" rounds out my top three. The warmth! Deep sounds before the guitar arrives soaring. I really like this, then it reverts back to that opening theme.

I also want to mention the 1 1/2 minute "Mailgnant Carbuncle" for the amazing guitar show. Ron has so many ideas, but also the nerve to follow through on some of these insane musical thoughts. He truly thinks out side the box, or bucket if you will. A solid 4 stars for these adventerous tales of woe.

PS I had already reviewed Ron's second release "Hermit" back in 2016, and mentioned there that he had a real drummer on board, but not so on the debut. Well, I had forgotten all that. After a couple of spins I decided to look up who the drummer was. Haha, what drummer? Usually in a case like this, once I find out about the programmed drums, the next listen reveals that in spades. Not here. I swear it's a real drummer, even after reading this information. Again, the man is so talented, in so many ways.