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	-	Bass
Release	02 June 2004	-	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	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