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Mattias IA Eklundh - Freak Guitar-The Road Less Traveled


*
=Staff's pick

The Road Less Traveled*
There's No Money in Jazz
Print This!*
Father*
No Strings Attached
Caffeine
Fletch Theme
The Battle of Bob
Chopstick Boogie
Toxic Donald
Happy Hour*
Smoke On The Water
Insert Coin
The Woman in Seat 27A
Ketchup Is A Vegetable
Samba Caramba*
White Trash Hyper Blues*
Toxic Mickey
Minor Swing*
One-String Improvisation
Asteroid 3834
Little Bastard*
Difficult Person Music


Genre Instrumental
Mattias IA Eklundh
Vocals
Tracks 23
Mattias IA Eklundh
Guitar
Runningtime 59 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Thunderstruck
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Bass
Release 02 June 2004
-
Drums
Country Sweden
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Keyboards
Similar artists ---

Madman or Genius? The line between the two is thin and IA is balancing with one leg on each side while getting the better out of them both.
The Road Less Traveled is the second solo album from the guitarist from Freak Kitchen where he takes the opportunity to showcase his insane kind of playing. Or third release if you count the one released under the synonym Mr. Libido.

That he has some pretty insane ideas is shown in tracks like Print This! and with The Battle of Bob. Print This! is inspired by the sound that comes from a printer and that is something you can hear really well, a mechanical sounding track with a nice groove. And just to read the story behind The Battle of Bob brings out a few laughs when it supposed to be the soundtrack for a computer game that he has plans for. The story is just hilarious, and the liner notes to each song further enhances the impression of the album when you can read his thoughts and the explanation to each track.

IA brings out some of the stuff that he brings along when Freak Kitchen plays live. The string-less guitar is here together with oral percussion and other gadgets. And in Samba Caramba the crowd pleasing tapping samba that he plays sitting down is included. There is one track on the album that has singing, Happy Hour, and halfway through the album the calmer song feels like a good breather from the insane and intense guitar playing.

There is some difference in quality over the twenty-three tracks on the album. When they got melody and finds a groove it is great, while others just leaves you with a gaping mouth wondering what the hell it was that flew by. Nevertheless it fascinating to hear what this guy can accomplish with his guitar, even for me who can not play a single note on a guitar finds this amusing. And I guess if you play guitar yourself the enjoyment will become even bigger when you know how its done and how impossible it is to do the stuff he does. It gets a bit plastic with the drum machine but the guitar makes this album feel very alive and with the way IA plays, he is a true guitar hero in my book.

See also review of: Land Of The Freaks , Organic

Production
Vocals
Compositions

7

7

6

 
Summary



6,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas

Related links:

www.freakguitar.com
www.freakkitchen.com