Jeff Beck - Jeff

Calling fabled guitar god Jeff Beck "mercurial" doesn't do justice to the word – or the legend himself. While this latest blast of maniacal Beckology seems to form a loose techno-centric triptych with its predecessors, by no means is the guitarist resting on his laurels here. If anything, his continuing collaboration with You Had It Coming producer Andy Wright (aided and deliciously sonically subverted by Splattercell's David Torn and Apollo 440) has yielded one of Beck's most muscular--if willfully challenging--collections of musical future shock. Save for the elegant, orchestra-backed take on the traditional folk of "Bulgaria" and introspective respite of "Line Dance with Monkey' and "JB's Blues," the guitarist seems to have little interest in traditional lyricism here, instead coaxing an inventive maelstrom of unearthly, metallic timbres and alien modalities from his instrument on the angular "Trouble Man," the hypnotic grooves of "So What" and the Torn-icated, melodic minimalism of "Plan B." On "Grease Monkey" and "Hot Rod Honeymoon," Apollo 440 playfully fold Beck's notorious car-culture fetishes into an ironic sonic origami of retro-samples and tense electro-rhythms, the latter highlighted by his neo-country chicken-pickin' and incomparable slide work. That track may be cast as mock Beach Boys car tune, but there's definitely nothing nostalgic about the evocative, often hard-edged mood here; it might as well be subtitled "Beck to the Future." --Jerry McCulley Amazon.com

Becktronica

So I am an instrumental fan, and this album fits nicely into my collection. This has about 4 really good songs that blend nicely with everthing from Tommy Guerrero to King Black Acid. I found the tones very interesting, in classic Jeff B form, low on viruosity and high in creativity. He has come a long way from Cream, but it is also back to the instrumental vibe that he was doing back in his stevie Wonder funk phase. November 18, 2008

a real departure

...from anything, actually.
Summary:
Audio geeks: buy this
Jeff Beck fans: buy Who Else! first, then this if you like it
other music fans: should probably start with "blow by blow" or even "truth" to see Jeff's roots--not what you might expect given this album (and great albums)

First off, The recording quality on this is astounding. The sounds used are well outside of the normal range. With my Dahlquist DQ-10 speakers, I was occasionally confused about where the sound was coming from, because I was pretty sure my speakers couldn't make those sounds.
In short, this album is an absolute must for audiophiles. I use a variety of tracks for testing speakers/headphones/amps/whatever, but I listening to track 8 (Line Dancing With Monkeys) always teaches me more than any other track in my collection.

This is a bold foray into electronica for Jeff. Unlike Who Else!, this really doesn't conjure up many memories of Classic Jeff Beck--which makes it really interesting. The variety of sounds, the way they're put together is pretty darned original as far as I can tell, and of course, the guitar samples are awesome (not surprising considering the source)--just full of nuance. I wish I had bought Who Else! first to ease me into this album, because it was such a shock to my ears, that for a while, I really didn't like it. After getting used to this album, the only thing I really find fault with is the vocal samples. They're not plastered all over the music or anything, but where they do appear, I find them awkward. That's why I only gave this 4 stars.

For those that aren't familiar with Jeff's work--this is techno-ish, but the samples are where fans of his earlier work will recognize him. Jeff is often called one of the most influential/important guitarists of all time (2nd most is probably fair), but his influence has mostly been through other guitarists, not direct to listeners. He's done a lot of groundbreaking stuff, and gone through many phases that sound quite distinct. I think after listening to that stuff you may hear this album differently. September 28, 2007

What A Ride

This is one of my all-time favorite Jeff Beck albums. It kicks butt and keeps on kicking. My favorite cut is "So What," which ignites the album and sets the tone. I can listen to this album over and over and over. As in previous albums, he names many of the songs after garage talk, and the rev'd up music is as snarling as some of the cars he tinkers with. "Grease Monkey," "Hod Rod Honeymoon," and "Trouble Man," are all sizzlers. I highly recommend this album if you want something to blow the cobwebs off your pipes as you fly down the freeway. If you are looking for Rod Stewart, you've come to the wrong garage. July 25, 2007

A Definte Comeback

It took him awhile but Jeff Beck reestablished himself in my eyes with this album . After just Blowing me AWAY no pun inteneded with Blow by Blow , I was disappointed by Wired. But this album more than reestablishes Mr. Beck as one of the preeminent guitarists of his time. With fast paced fun hard-hitting licks on such songs Hotrod Honeymoon, Jeff makes it fun to listen to him again . I've enjoyed the cd so much I keep playing it over and over July 12, 2007

It's Jeff Beck!!

I bought this CD two days back and had time yesterday to tune in the night expecting some classical outfit with blues-rock just like what Jeff comes up with in his solo efforts which is purely classical!

But this one is absolutely different as Jeff had taken care of each and every arrangements being one many army. The album starts off with a number called "So What" which will rock you down the bottom with high-pitched guitar and electronic sounds followed by other tracks like "Plan B" "Pork-u-pine".

I am mainly into Jazz, Blues, Rock, Funk and have a large extensive and varied collection of music listening for past 17 years. This album is something very different which I enjoyed the most albeit it's heavy!!

You don't have to think twice to buy an album of Jeff as all Jeff's freak are aware of what he can do. So try it out!! That's all I have to say.

Ciao and and enjoy folks!!!! June 24, 2007

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