(Jazz, Fusion, Jazzrock, Progressive Rock) Rigel Michelena - Bartok's Room - 2001, FLAC (tracks+.cue) lossless

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 15. March 2010, 17:32
Rigel Michelena / Bartok's Room
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Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
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TOC of the extracted CD
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        1  |  0:00.00 |  8:31.52 |         0    |    38376
        2  |  8:31.52 |  4:46.67 |     38377    |    59893
        3  | 13:18.44 |  4:48.44 |     59894    |    81537
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        6  | 30:31.68 |  5:11.57 |    137393    |   160774
        7  | 35:43.50 |  2:37.67 |    160775    |   172616
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        9  | 41:53.53 |  5:03.19 |    188528    |   211271
       10  | 46:56.72 |  2:32.72 |    211272    |   222743
Track  1
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Track  2
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Track  3
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Track  4
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Track  5
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Track  6
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Track  8
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Track  9
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Track 10
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End of status report

REM GENRE Fusion
REM DATE 2000
REM DISCID 700B990A
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb5"
FILE "01 - Artilugio (Florilegio Artefactico).wav" WAVE
  TRACK 01 AUDIO
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  TRACK 02 AUDIO
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FILE "02 - i.wav" WAVE
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FILE "03 - El Ojo-Dido.wav" WAVE
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FILE "04 - Song For Bartok.wav" WAVE
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FILE "05 - Inside.wav" WAVE
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FILE "08 - Street Jam (Jam-eo En La Calle).wav" WAVE
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Take yer fav ball o' silly putty and roll it over a sound/style image of chops a la Allan Holdsworth, Scott Henderson, Alex MacHacek, Joe Satriani, and snippets of Robert “the math-rock, monsieur Roboto” Fripp and squash out a nice distorto reprinted mosaic riffage picture of Michelena's multi-instrumentalist expertise and voicings . . . and you have this release in a nutshell or putty print.
Seriously, a great deal super-duper, quicksilver riffs, frettage and wailings are going down here. There is a variety of hippy-trippy, Euro-cool-techno-futuristic, furious, frenetic, yet laid-back Floydian, “Comfortably Numb”-ish fusion prog guitar and programming inside. Did I mention groovin beats and a unique variety of song flows? Cool acoustic axe work is included too!
Michelena has a new groove here of fresh chops galore but in a package like I haven’t heard in awhile. There’s even that Lost Tribe boogie-yer-bootay thang in places but overall this is avant-fusion, not freeform, but free-for-all fusion, whatever goes be slick. Attaching a post-rock, experimental, technical fusion moniker might work with a nod to Zappa and Vai’s Flexable way of attacking and decimating the expected. Michelena is full of surprises and overflowing with technical prowess. Don’t expect to relax too much nor for too long. This is an “upper” y’all. Recommended for the adventurous folks tired of fuzak.
© allaboutjazz.com

Prologue. "Bartok's Room", the debut album by the first Solo Pilot to come out from Venezuela, has nothing to do with the famous Hungarian composer. According to Rigel, this album was composed, performed, and recorded in his cat's room, Bartok. Which, correspondingly, received a "special thanks" in the booklet of CD. In other words, cat Bartok lives in the home studio of that Venezuelan joker. Well, let's see what his music is about. I had hoped that this wouldn't be a caterwauling show, consisting of Bartok's screams and other cat noises while eating and 'doing' his daily toilet visit.
The Album. On the whole, the music of Rigel Michelina's debut album can be described as a blend of Classic and Neo Jazz-Fusion. In fact, various compositions present various manifestations of the Jazz-Fusion genre. What's interesting is four of the five of the more accessible tracks are marked with evident influences; whereas all five of the best pieces sound very original (at least for this reviewer). Both of the first compositions on the album are 'dedicated' to Allan Holdsworth. On Artiloquio, which is characterized with interchanges of jazzy guitar or piano solos and symphonic passages of a synthesizer, most of the guitar solos are not unlike Allan's. All of the electric guitar passages, that are featured One (track 2), as well as the overall musical atmosphere of this piece, very much remind me of those from Holdsworth's "Metal Fatigue" album (1985). Most of the fluid and jazzy guitar solos from Inside & Twiggy Pig (tracks 5 & 6) remind me of Pat Metheny's style. There are a few of the female vocalizes on Twiggy Pig. This piece, as well as both of the album's first tracks, sounds much richer than Inside, which is the simplest composition here (if not to count Final Chat, track 10, which is nothing else but a very 'narrative' joke). All five of the remaining tracks shine with their originality and very interesting arrangements, ranging from a moderate to high degree of complexity. While Song For Bartok (track 4) consists of acoustic structures almost entirely, Street Jam (track 8) is a completely acoustic piece. The first of them is filled with Latin American flavored interplay between diverse and tasteful rhythms and passages of an acoustic guitar and solos of a bass guitar and percussion. African-like voices and exclamations accompany the virtuosi passages and rhythms of acoustic guitar throughout Street Jam. El Ojo-Dido, The Last Dodo Bird, and Uranus (tracks 3, 7, &9) are the 'official' representatives of the Classic Jazz-Fusion genre. All of them contain both jazzy (rather Jazz-Rock-y, though) and symphonic structures and are filled with the original, highly diverse and interesting, truly progressive arrangements.
Summary. If honestly, only Inside and Final Chat (tracks 5 & 10) I find really weak compositions on this album. Thus, I like not only those five that are the most original compositions on the album, but also both of the opening tracks and Twiggy Pig. Despite the fact that three of the latter pieces are marked with the traces of influences, that I've mentioned in the beginning of this review, all of them were performed up to the mark of the musicianship. In all, "Bartok's Room" is a very promising debut.
© progressor.net

Rigel Michelena: Guitars,Keyboards,Sequencing,Drum programming,Percussion
Oscar Fanega: Bass (2,3,6,9)
Miguel Blanco: Bass (1,4,9)
Yoncarlos Medina: Keyboards (1,5,9)
Javier Saume: Drums (3)
Yudnara De Ridder: Vocals (6)
Guillermo Diaz: Narraton (10)