Customer Reviews

2001 Live From Oz

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

as a guitar player I have always[since I was 13]liked joe satriani and other instrumental artists. after reading some reviews I purchased this album I was amazed at what I heard. I stayed up until about 12:00 at night trying to figure out "inside
black" on guitar. I recomend this album to anyone who has a taste for fusion and instrumental types of music. Live at the Oz is the best live album I own. if there was no cheering in the backround you would think this was a studio album

do yourself a favor and buy this cd every track is flawless and stands out from one another.

Sherinian is the new Jan Hammer. He really really really wants to be a guitar player but he put in way too much time, effort, and money into being a virtuoso keyboardist that it's too late to turn back now. He takes guitar phrasing on keyboards to new heights. He's amazing except that Jan Hammer had already blazed that trail. He'd been there, done that, and bought the T-Shirt with Jeff Beck and Al DiMeola 20 to 30 years earlier with less technology.

He get's all the cool sounds that today's money can buy. He writes bloated, pompus, bombastic, pretentiously intricate stuff that would be best suited for Playstation 2 sound tracks or Japanese animation. It is devoid of any funk influence what so ever which is a major over sight. Be American for God sake, we all need the funk! It exists everywhere except in this band's compositions. Call it "Groove" if it makes you feel better. All Fusion doesn't have to march or have odd time signatures.

Outside of this context, Live From OZ is like listening to lite jazz for those who use to listen to early Metallica but grew up. Like lite jazz, they don't have to think about it. It can just wash over them like a thorazine bath. But Planet X is a serious thorazine bath! You can be the hero in Starship Troopers in your mind, and Live From Oz would be your sound track as you mercilessly killed giant bugs on some far away planet. Pseudo intellectual metal/fusion heads can blare this music from their cars and feel superior because, "The songs have movements and stuff just like in classical music! Wanna get Rush tickets?"

Sherinian gives the songs titles that he's overheard from badly attired geeks at sci-fi conventions. Then there's "Europa" and no Santana. He's nailed the ability to write tunes in odd time signatures and by golly everybody's gonna know that he can write tunes in odd time signatures. "Let's do this one in 9/8 just because I can!" You can't help but feel sorry for the drummer, because even though his performance is flawless, you know he's just dying to stop counting and relax. "Can we just funk out in 4/4 for just one song please!?"

Guitarist Tony MacAlpine is a freak and a genius. I would never say this if Tony was white, but Tony is the whitest black guitar player I have ever heard. No black guitar player has ever sounded as white as Tony. No, not even Tom Morello! His guitar playing is 100% devoid of any blues, funk, soul, or R&B influence (Have you heard L.A. Blues Authority? Tony was born without the blues gene!). In fact he doesn't even sound American.

It's like he was kidnapped at birth and flown to Europe to study Chopin and Allan Holdsworth. We all run from the towering spector of Jimi Hendrix until we understand how to transcend the influence. But it's cool because MacAlpine is the absolute best of the best of the post Malmsteen Neo-Classical camp. His 2nd solo release Maximum Security is a must own for anyone who feels the need for a guitar inferiority complex. It's a masterpiece. He does amazing things blending Holdsworth, Malmsteen, DiMeola, and Vai, but making all of it his own.

Let's not even get into the classical concertos he can perform on the piano. Yeah, a freak genius. He smokes all over this disc and even the great Sherinian breaks a sweat trying to keep up with him when they trade 8's DiMeola/Hammer style.

Yeah, I'm being ... sarcastic..., but it's a cool disc. It doesn't stick to your ribs like Yes use to do but it's still cool, if only for the musicianship and the bombastic nature of the tunes. This was one of the first discs I bought that I heard where MacAlpine wasn't playing strict Neo-Classical. He always said he was a fusion guy and he was right.

I also purchased Moonbabies and Black Utopia (Tony should have been on this one too. A huge mistake!) which I like as well. Tony, if we ever meet in person again, don't hurt me. You're a gifted freak, but I can still take you on the basketball court.

Pompus Sci-Fi Music for a World Deviod of all Funk!

There are few CDs that usurp my listening time the way this CD has. "Live from Oz" delivers brilliance and the most beautiful imaginative musical complexity and energy to your ear (just watch yourself keep turning it up), these guys are GODS! One amazing performance after another, and the solos are beyond - just way the heck beyond generous and *inspired*.

While i'm very familiar w/Planet X owning ALL their cd's, even a 3 cd Raw Pack that Derek made available on an extremely limited basis because it was autographed & dated by DS, I have to now rate this "Live from Oz" my favorite "live" recording, surpassing what used to hold that position, UK's "Night After Night"! This cd's was mixed by drum-god Simon Phillips and contains both older incredible Planet X songs(Dog Boots-Atlantis
ect)it also features enough "new" material that whether you're new to the Planet X experience or not, you'll simply LOVE this cd

This disc also contains solo's from each member, but they are of
the short variety(Tony's at 4:14 is the longest)so those that can
not keep their attention span for longer solo's(I personally love
to hear virtuosos do extended solo's, being a drummer especially Donati's)So "Live from Oz" should be in your cd collection, whether or not you know of Planet X, & just admire the higest form of "Progressive" music; or people who can play their respective instrument at the possible highest level. A must purchase!!
Steven Munari
PS: This cd contains a 15th "bonus" track, Clonus

Being my all times favorites Live Albums: Exit, Stage ...Left (Rush) ,Live Scenes from a Memory (Dream Theater)and World Tour 90 (Uzeb), this Mamooth looks from above this three little "rabbits" (it's just a metaphore, I really like a lot this three "rabbits"), well , this guys may have some kind of invisible cable interconnected between them, y never heard such technical, brutal and melodic Sound all in one. Tony is The man, he is like an universal player he can play anything flawlessly. Virgil has sobrepassed my expectations and I think i like him more than Portnoy ( and that's a serious declaration),Derek is the sonic K-man from Inner Space..... the whole experience can't be described by words, please listen to this modern music Gods, they'll make you apreciate more the word "music".

The musicianship, as well as the songs and the sound, are superb. The sound that these aliens produce is huge, the rhythms mighty, and the unison lines and solos amazing. And this is just an appetizer for the Moonbabies cd. Highly reccomended.