SHAWN LANE

Uneven Mix from the Fusion Shred Demigod

Shred guitar has come in and out of style several times since the invention of the electric guitar, and still boasts a devoted community worldwide. Few, if any, hold the exalted status among that group than Shawn Lane. His pick speed and hand synchronization are simply jaw-dropping. He can pick lines that require two hands even for the likes of Paul Gilbert. At a legendary gathering of Ibanez' fastest guns on stage (including Vai, Satriani, et al) Lane simply left the entire group aghast. Some of the players following him wouldn't even play. He was also a savant of sorts in multiple areas of expertise, having a habit of completely immersing himself in a subject without the light of day. His piano skills were nearly as amazing as his guitar skills. He certainly didn't have the look of a rock star, as long time steroid use for his psoriatic arthritis continually added weight until it was almost incapacitating by the time of his early death in 2003.

TRI TONE FASCINATION sounds like a collection of demos rather than a unified album. There are some great tracks such as "Minarets" and "Tri-75." The first is a fusion feast that would certainly please fans of Lane's work with Jonas Hellborg. The second is a more composed piece that is probably the "proggy" of the lot. The album's opening track, "Kaiser Nancarrow" contains some very dated electronica that for me is a bit of a head scratcher. "Art Tatum" also interweaves hip-hop??? keyboard moments and a badly programmed drum machine with some interesting piano comping and a blazing guitar run. "Peace in Mississippi" is Lane's take on long time love Hendrix. While I appreciate the notion, I'm not sure it adds anything to either Hendrix or Lane's legacy. "The Way It Has to Be" is one of the better Lane ballads. Seemingly simpler than it actually is, Lane brings his fine sense of phrasing and articulation to the forefront with some fireblazing flourishes over an odd rhythm and harmony. I actually enjoy Lane's version of this style of soft jazz than Allan Holdsworth's, though Chris Poland does it better.

But absolutely no one can play simultaneously as fast and tasteful as Lane. There are very very few who can match his speed at all, and every single one I've heard clearly has neither the depth of musical knowledge or expressive ability. Lane sounds like Eric Johnson at double speed. The others sound like computer simulations. Similarly, though Lane's compositions are beds for soloing, they are constructed with a jazz sensibility. Virtually all have clear melodic "heads" and a good sense off tension and release. None are simply vehicles for showing off.

Unfortunately, I don't know if there really is a perfect Shawn Lane album. So many discs have flashes, but many (especially this one) are really uneven. I think every guitar fanatic needs to have some of Lane's work in their music library, and there are least three songs on this album that would work well. All of it is pretty good fusion, and certainly the variety makes it easy to listen all the way through the album. But for newcomers, I'd look through Lane's work with Jonas Hellborg first.

When I first came in touch with Shawn Lane's music, I wasn't too enthusiastic. But now, some months later, the song "Gray Pianos Flying" made me buy this Album. Like Jason Becker, Shawn Lane was an exceptional artist and composer. His compositions make me feel...they transmit that much emotions, that I wouldn't dare to specify them. "Powers Of Ten: Suite" and "Piano Concertino: Transformation Of Themes" are the slower accessable songs on this CD. But you'll learn to like them after some listens. If you like exceptional music with intelligent melodies and a transcendental feeling, you should definitely get this!

Listen to this song, to find out if you like it: Gray Pianos Flying I would specify this CD with the following genres: Jazz / Fusion / Bluesy Boogie / Neoclassical / Progressive Similar Artists: Jason Becker

Shawn Lane's debut is eclectic release of skilled musician. Big part of music there is instrumental rock with elements of (soft) shredding, neo-classic, pop-rock, americana, jazz-fusion.

I am not lover of melodic instrumental pop-rock, but Shawn is really good musician, so even such unattractive genre he could make acceptable to listen. Possibly, main reason is very often he plays easy accessible pop-oriented music on his own, jazzy manner. It doesn't helps to save all album, but it makes this release more attractive for sure.

Differently from many popular axe-heroes Shawn plays soft and well rounded guitar music. Almost all arrangements have some jazzy feeling. Only small part of compositions there has relations with progressive rock, but in whole this album is better than you can imagine.

This LIVE album of one of the most important's guitar players in the history of music is a pure musical jewel!Sick and tired that he cannot buy the rights from WARNER BROS to re-release the magical POWERS OF TEN album,EYE RECKON RECORDS,and SHAWN LANE decided to release this album in LIVE format ,which features the whole POWERS OF TEN tracks and some extras!The sound quality is excellent and the playing fabulous!For those who have some doubts that SHAWN LANE wasn't a genius,well this album proves that this man was out of this planet!His playing was unique and will be for many years to come an example of pure virtuosity , guitar wizzardry and musical integrity!It's something totally freakin' scarry to hear the frenzy and dementia of the improvisation madness on DRUM AND GUITAR SOLO,where drumer SEAN RICKMAN is simply fantastic but Maestro LANE is blistering literally and epitomizes the limits of human skills in terms of virtuosity and fantastic playing on guitar! Sometimes we have the feeling thet this man had more then 10 fingers and what he did on this instrument was unbelieveble!The songs from POWERS OF TEN are superbe ,very diverse,catchy and full of rich moments of joy for life and marvelous musical ideas exposed! LANE's music is so intelligent,eleborated and the keyboards-majestically played by DOUG SCARBOROUGH here-are having a very important role in LANE'S music!!GRAY PIANOS FLYING ,EPILOGUE FOR LISA,ESPERANTO-are only a few musical jewels that are timeless and will delight forever any good music lover forever!What LANE is doing on solo is a little different compared with his albums with Swedish monster bass JONAS HELLBORG,but has the same impact not only on instrumental guitar orientated music lovers,but on those who love good quality music,played with pure passion and extremelly well composed and structured! SHAWN LANE was unique in his style and there will never be another one!GOD was unfair and took him too early in heaven,but his music will be forever a testimony of a true musical genius!RIP SHAWN LANE,may God bless your gentle spirit and you'll never be forgotten,big man with golden fingers!5 STARS for a historycal album!

I already gave an extensive introduction of Shawn Lane and his music in my review of his first album "The Powers of Ten" so I'm not gonna repeat myself here, to those who would like to have some background I suggest to check that one first. This second solo album is usually rated higher than the first by most reviewers, but for me it's slightly inferior.

Once again, this is not prog-rock in the common sense of the term, and this album even a bit less than the first, since the most experimental and classical side has disappeared, this album is more straight and easier to listen to. I have the edition with 11 tracks. Again we recognize two distinct sets of songs but different from the first album, here the first half contains the hardest and more rocking tracks and the second half the soft tracks. There is not such a clear distinction anymore between "guitar tracks" and "piano-keyboards tracks", here Shawn combines both instruments more evenly although obviously the harder tracks are more guitar oriented. He was supported by a few other musicians in some tracks (most notably some real drums) and it sounds more like a band even if Shawn still played most of the instruments.

The first track "Kaiser Nancarrow" sounds like the good pieces of Steve Vai, upbeat and hard but not too heavy, with drums sounding a bit like Terry Bozzio's. Excellent guitar but a bit too simple rythmic base.

"Peace in Mississippi" is pure 70's hard rock, reminding us of Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Purple or the instrumental parts of early Rush.

"Minarets" is frenzy heavy-fusion, a very good track.

"The way it has to be" is instrumental rock in the style of Steve Morse or the soft tracks from Steve Vai.

"Tri-7/5" is more fusion and uses more keyboards but it's still a rocker.

"Art Tatum" marks the equator or the album dividing the hard and the soft tracks, and is itself none of either, a strange beast with a drum machine which makes it sound nearly like dance acid-jazz and some insane piano and guitar scales.

As from here the album gets soft (not necessarily meaning worse), with "The Hurt, The Joy" being a slow tempo melodic track, fine but dangerously approaching cheesy territory.

"Maria" is even softer, without drums, something like the quiet tracks of Pat Metheny & Lyle Mays or the 90's new age music like Lito Vitale, Shadowfax etc.

"One note at a time" is more upbeat, again with Metheny flavour and a more interesting time signature.

"Song for Dianne" is again a melodic slow tempo tune, and the final "Epilogue Bach" is a very soft adaptation of a J.S. Bach chorale.

Compared to his first album, this one has better drumming and better sound in general, and will appeal more to the harder guitar lovers (the first half), to those who found the most experimental half of "The Powers of Ten" difficult to swallow, and to soft melodic music lovers (the second half). However for my personal taste I find the melodies here less memorable, it's more commercial, and given that both albums are strongly polarized in two different styles, I prefer the polarization in "The Powers of Ten" than the polarization in "The Tri-Tone Fascination". In any case still a very good album, testament of the excellent musicianship of Shawn Lane, and as I said I may be an exception because most people seem to like this one better.

This is an outstanding album in its style but beware, this is not prog-rock, and even some jazz-fusion purists may have reservations about it, but I believe it can appeal to many open- minded proggers. Since this is its first review in PA, at risk of getting too long I will try to give extensive information so you can judge whether it may fit your taste or not.

What does it sound like? Well, it's totally instrumental and it contains two very different facets. We have the guitar themes which for using well known references I would describe as a mix of Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Pat Metheny and Steve Morse, with another valid comparison being Frank Gambale. Then we have the experimental themes which are mostly based on piano / keyboards and blend jazz-fusion and classical music elements. The good thing is that while the music of referents often suffers of being "too something" ("too academical, scale-practice-exercise feel", "too much all the songs the same", "too heavy metal", "songs are too long", "too experimental" etc), Shawn Lane blends all the elements in a clever way, the songs are not long and there is enough variation to keep your attention awaken.

Shawn Lane was a natural born musical talent, he was a very accomplished pianist- keyboardist but he specialized in lead guitar virtuoso technique. He dedicated most of his career to clinics and colaborations, mostly with swedish fusion bassist Jonas Hellborg. He also participated in the Mike Varney's guitar chops projects and he is regarded by many as the fastest guitarist ever, which sometimes puts him somewhat misleadingly among other metal guitar shredders such as Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker or Marty Friedman. Yes, Lane was a shredder, but with a much deeper musical dimension and more fusion oriented than the rather hard-metal approach of others. He suffered a degenerative illness which eventually killed him in 2003 at the age of 40, and he left us only 2 solo studio records, of which this is the first one.

He played all the instruments here, for the drums he used a sequencer but he did a very good job and for the most part we don't get that annoying feeling that we are listening to a drum machine (although in a few moments we may do). There is a later edition with a different track sequence, slightly different versions of some tracks and some bonus tracks, I will describe my copy which is the original edition from 1992.

The album starts with 3 delightful guitar tracks "Not again", "Illusions" and "Get you back" which follow a similar formula, length around 4 min, a rock-fusion background with a very tasteful melody which develops into soloing, growing in intensity and becoming speed- of-light virtuoso shredding ("Illusions" being softer and more jazzy). The rythmic structure is not complex for prog standards but they are of great quality.

"West side boogie" is a southern rock (the only track not composed by Lane) which sounds more like the Dixie Dregs / Steve Morse Band, the weakest for my taste.

Just when we might start thinking that this is another guitar-hero album of the Mike Varney school, Shawn makes a 180 degree turn with the 3 tracks which occupy the next 28 minutes of music and show his more experimental and fusion side. "Powers of Ten: Suite" and "Piano Concertino" are focussed on piano and orchestral synths and as mentioned combine contemporary classical music with atmospheric jazz, and the following "Paris" is closer to experimental free-jazz. Guitar-hero seekers may find this middle section of the album tedious but I appreciate it as it provides a welcome change of scenery in what would otherwise be a too much guitar-soloing oriented album, it shows another facet of Shawn's talents, his terrific skills on the piano and keyboards, and brings the album closer to the realm of prog.

After this experimental break we get "Esperanto" which sits in the middle between the guitar tracks and the more jazzy ones, and two more guitar tracks similar in style as the first three, "Rules of the game" which actually reverses the formula starting as hard rock and transforming into a fusion melody after the first minute, and the wonderful "Gray pianos flying".

The album closes with the emotional soft lullaby "Epilogue" dedicated to his deceased sister Elisa, played on clean reverbered guitar on a bed of atmospherical keyboards.

A wonderful record from an outstanding musician which can please a very wide spectrum of listeners, from Steve Vai fans to Chick Corea's to Metheny's to Zappa's to proggers and much more. The drastic difference between the two styles of tracks give it a somewhat inconsistent feeling and maybe it does not deserve 5 stars, but certainly a highly recommended album and I give it 4 stars without hesitation.