Press Release
Rotosound is delighted to add their range over forty new Guitar Picks to its ever-expanding selection of guitar accessories, helping guitar players everywhere in their search for the perfect pick. The guitar picks come in packs of six and are made from either celluloid, Delrin or PVC and are priced from £1.50 each inc.vat.

Historically celluloid was the first plastic ever used to make guitar picks. These picks are the ones that most closely resemble the feel and sound of real tortoise shell and come in the standard celluloid or pearloid finish. They both feel smooth to the touch with their polished finish and have a warm vintage sound. The celluloid guitar picks are available in four thicknesses, the classic shape in classic, small and large sizes, the heart shape, the small teardrop shape and the small shark tooth shape. The pearloid guitar picks are available in the classic size and shape.

Delrin guitar picks are less rigid than the celluloid ones and come in a wider range of thicknesses. They have a warm woody tone that emphasises the lower order harmonics. The Delrin guitar picks are extremely durable with a matte surface that makes the pick easier to grip, particularly with sweaty hands. These picks are available in the classic size and shape, in the shark tooth shape (same basic size, but with a more aggressive point for precision playing), or in a large classic shape.

If you need a more affordable guitar pick, then Rotosound can offer PVC guitar picks, in three different thicknesses in the classic size and shape with either an opaque or transparent finish.

To find our more about the Rotosound guitar pick range visit http://www.rotosound.com/

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Occasionally albums, or in this case, E.P.’s come along that are just that extra bit special ‘All Roads Lead Here‘ by Chimp Spanner definitely falls into this category. This brilliant instrumental Progressive Metal EP from 26 year old UK musician, composer and 7 and 8 string guitar virtuoso Paul Antonio Ortiz is, I believe, composed, produced, programmed and played by just Paul himself and no other musicians which makes this release even more incredible. For live shows Paul teams up with Jim Hughes on Guitar, Adam Swan on Bass and Boris Le Gal on Drums. This is how Paul describes the music of Chimp Spanner, “It’s soundtrack metal, progressive retro-futurism, a polymetric space opera, music for hover-boarding championships…but most people just say it’s kinda ‘chimpy’“. I couldn’t put it better myself. Hearing this album reminded me of when I heard Goldie’s ‘Timeless‘ for the first time in the mid 90′s and feeling like you have just had a new musical avenue introduced to you that you never knew existed. When I usually talk about the albums I review on Guitar Noize I generally hone in on the guitar playing itself and the virtuosity and technique displayed but with this E.P., despite all of those things, Paul makes me totally forget about the fantastic guitar playing and makes me listen to the E.P. as a continuously flowing composition. “Polymetric Space Opera”, yep that sums ‘All Roads Lead Here‘ perfectly.

“I always write as though I’m composing to a brief as it helps give the arrangements purpose/meaning.”

There is a 3 part epic called ‘Mobius‘ which is worth the price of this E.P. alone, it has recurring Rhythmic and melodic motifs intertwined cleverly throughout much like a Classical composer would do, but all of the 6 tracks are beautifully textured and layered with interesting chord progressions that transcend the obvious patterns used so often in Metal. The opening track for instance ‘Dark Age of Technology‘ and final track ‘Cloud City‘ (Star Wars fan?) have jazzy bass lines and swirling Keyboard pads that would be just as at home in a Drum ‘n Bass record but also melodies that could have been written by Frank Gambale or Steve Lukather and yet have all of the tracks have underlying heavy guitar rhythms that accentuate the drums and funky bass lines while creating genre bending Jazz Fusion Metal. Ortiz’s guitar playing is flawless, many of his tracks use two handed tapping to create complex multi-octave spanning riffs, his melodies are well composed and not overplayed and he switches from the “Djenty” heavy tones to pristine clean and also crunchy bluesy tones to add to the sonic palette from time to time. I wouldn’t call any of the lead guitar parts solos as such as they are really melodies but my favourite track ‘Cloud City‘ does have what some would probably consider a guitar solo with Jazz Fusion riffs a la Guthrie Govan over a funky bass and rhythm guitar riff, many guitarists would have trouble playing with so much restraint but Paul instinctively knows what will enhance his music rather than just showing off his technical prowess.

I have listened to this EP about 10 times in the past 24 hours, I keep coming back to it because it is the most refreshing and exciting instrumental album I have heard in years.

Check out this live performance of ‘Cloud City’ recorded in Paris:

http://www.chimpspanner.com/
http://basickrecords.com/

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Check out this cool video that was produced for the 27th Annual TEC Awards where he was given the ‘Les Paul Award‘.

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Press Release
Back by popular demand, Lee Ritenour launches the 3rd Annual Yamaha 6 String Theory Guitar Competition on Jan. 21, 2012, in partnership with Yamaha, Berklee College of Music, Crown of the Continent Guitar Foundation and the National Guitar Workshop. 2012 marks the expansion of the competition to include the Inaugural Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin Rhythm Section Competition. Oscar® award winning and 2012 Grammy® nominated, Dave Grusin, is head of the Advisory Board for the Rhythm Section competition. Adding 3 new instruments to the competition: Piano, Bass and Drums, the contest grows to reach thousands of aspiring and upcoming new musicians from around the world. The contest kicks off January 21, 2012 and ends May 1, 2012.

Guitar Entries will be accepted in the genres of Rock, Blues, Jazz/Fusion, Acoustic, Classical/Flamenco or Country. Rhythm Section Entries will be accepted in the genres of Jazz, Fusion, Rock, Blues or Contemporary. Competitors are required to send an online video submission at www.sixstringtheory.com

Prizes for the Guitar Competition include Berklee College of Music Scholarships, professional recording and mentoring opportunities, a weeklong stay at the four-star Flathead Lake Lodge in Bigfork, MT for a party of two ($8,000 value), a potential Concord Records recording contract, 36 National Guitar Workshop scholarships, 6 Crown of the Continent Scholarships, Cash, Yamaha Guitars & endorsements as well as other prizes from Monster, D’Addario Strings, and others. There is a special cash prize of $2,500 awarded to the Classical Guitar Finalist (courtesy of sponsor James Stroud), as well as $500 cash prize to each of the 6 Guitar Finalists. Rhythm Section prizes include Berklee College of Music Scholarships, Yamaha instruments; professional mentoring; an opportunity to record on Lee Ritenour’s forthcoming album with Concord Music Group scheduled for release May 2012; an opportunity to perform at the esteemed Crown of the Continent Guitar Workshop and Festival in Montana Aug. 26-Sept. 2, 2012 and other prizes from Monster. Total value of 4 prize packages over $600,000.

To register and for complete contest rules, regulations and prizes visit www.sixstringtheory.com

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Whether you live in the US, the UK or Australia Joe Satriani has teamed up with Cinemas to bring you the Montreal Concert in both 2D and 3D HD from “The Wormhole Tour” brought to you by award winning filmmakers Pierre and Francois Lamoureux.

For US dates check out – http://www.dandeentertainment.com/satchurated/

For Australia:
http://cinemalive.com/CustomContentRetrieve.aspx?ID=516135

For UK:
http://cinemalive.co.uk/

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I’ve seen some comments on this video suggesting that it is fake because you don’t see Steve’s face, I can assure you that Mark Day is an honest and reliable guy and would never post a fake video, also Steve Stevens himself told me that he was working on a Dave Friedman Signature amp a while ago so for all the non believers out there you will see soon enough. Aside from that check out that playing and tone! I love the sound of Dave Friedman’s amps and this one is going to cause some serious G.A.S.!!

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This is a cool video from Dunlop featuring Joe Bonamassa and his signature Cry Baby Wah and Fuzz Face.

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This is a huge competition from Premier Guitar not just because they have assembled 5 amazing pedalboards with loads of great effects pedals, a Pedaltrain Grande and flight case for each but also because this competition is global. Watch the video above to see whose pedalboards are up for grabs!

Head over to Premier Guitar’s Facebook contest page to enter – https://www.facebook.com/premierguitar?sk=app_190322544333196

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Paradigm are a Progressive Metal band from Sydney, Australia that I first heard about on the Suhr discussion forum when guitarist James Ivanyi posted the video at the bottom of this review which shows James tracking some of the guitar parts for their latest album ‘Mind Is Key‘ on a very nice Suhr Standard. As you will see from the video James is an incredibly talented guitar player who studied at the Australian Institute of Music and is certainly not afraid of complex rhythms and skates all over the fretboard with ease with his technically challenging riffs. He is also a great bass player (check out part 2 of the video below).

Once James and the rest of the band had finished tracking the album he sent it over to me to check out as he knows I’m a fan of Prog Metal. ‘Mind Is Key‘ consists of 6 tracks but the opening track is nearly 17 minutes long, 2 tracks are pushing 12 minutes and the remaining 2 tracks are 7 minutes so there is certainly no shortage of music. The album opens with ‘Android‘ which you can hear some of the riffs in the video below, it is filled with staccato stabbing and harmony guitar riffs and despite it’s epic length seamlessly moves between the fairly distinct sections, it could get very boring if it was just the same verse and chorus for that amount of time Paradigm do a great job of making you forget that this is a single track. ‘Mind Is Key‘ does a nice job of mixing tempos and styles in order to keep the album interesting throughout, the first three tracks are really heavy for instance whereas track 4, ‘Visions‘, is an acoustic track that kind of reminds me of Led Zeppelin’s acoustic tracks as it has folk influences with a modern twist.

There is some really great guitar playing on this album and one of my favourite moments is the last few minutes of the song ‘Written In Blood‘ where the song totally transforms from brutal heavy guitar riffs into a delicate ballad style section with Gilmour style tone (from the videos it looks like this was recorded with a Suhr Classic, it certainly has a classic Strat style tone). It then moves into a more overdriven section using the same progression and tempo and shows that James can really play melodically as well as technically. If I have one criticism of this album it is that the vocals seem a little quiet on the copy I was sent but that is only a minor detail on a great album.

Paradigm Line-up
Thomas Arcadi (vocals)
Dave Horgan (drums)
James Ivanyi (guitar)
Graham Daniels (guitar)
Ryan Wooden (bass)

You can buy Paradigm – Mind Is Key in the iTunes Store – http://itunes.apple.com/au/album/mind-is-key/id499779539

Paradigm on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/paradigm.australia

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Slash opened up his recording studio to Ray-Ban allowing unprecedented access into the mind and music of one of our greatest guitar legends. Tune in each week for a new episode to see Slash and friends at their best.

Episode 2
In the second installment, Slash and friends go old school — deep into the LA valley for pre pre production — to work on new jams.

Episode 3
In this episode Slash talks about producer Eric Valentine.

Episode 4
Slash heads into the ‘Slash Box’!

I can’t wait to hear the new album the last album was so good and I’m glad he is using Myles Kennedy for all of the tracks this time around.

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