Content-length: 12744
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Reviews of _Hard Hat Area_
Submitted by Chris Manuel <CPMANUEL@BCSC02.GOV.BC.CA>, 2/15/95
_Hard Hat Area - An Appreciation_ I'm a big fan of Allan Holdsworth's playing
and writing. This is a truth, even before I listened to "Hard Hat Area".
Fortunately, I remain a fan after listening to HHA. However I'm going to start
with a criticism: the CD is too short. Total running time is under 42 minutes!
I recognize writing a CD's worth of material is not a trivial task, but I
would be happy to hear an additional thirty minutes of out take solos,
wouldn't you? After all, there's no such thing as the definitive improvised
solo. I'm not going to do a track-by-track analysis, just some general
thoughts.
Guitar Tone
In my first post to the group I spoke of the change in Allan's tone from
earlier recordings. It seems like each year produces a further softening of
the attack harmonics in his guitar sound. I sampled part of a track and did a
frequency analysis in Sound Designer II and found that there is precious
little happening above 10 kHz. Granted this is a rough analysis with the
guitar sitting right in the middle of the mix but does suggest a long-term
softening in tone. I compared the _evil_ Velvet Darkness tone as an example of
earlier work. Accepting the fact that it is a really wanky CD, it does show a
much brighter guitar sound with lots of harmonics in the 12 to 14 kHz range.
As he is quoted as saying (over and over) that he draws inspiration from wind
instruments it's understandable to hear him working towards fewer attack
harmonics. The first chiming note struck at the start of the Prelude
improvisation sets the stage for the whole CD.
Some of the solos sounds are a little too soft for my taste though. In track
2, at around 4 minutes in, he plays some double stop fourths and fifths that
should nearly fry the speaker with intermodulation distortion but even they
remain smooth because of the muted tone. In my first post I wondered if the
Holdsworths had moved back to England - influencing his tone toward the more
bucolic. Since then I've read the Atavachron group enough to realize that the
Holdsworths remain in California. So, a new theory: maybe his SynthAxe tone,
driving the Oberheim Matrix 12, has influenced his guitar tone. Probably the
two, guitar and synthaxe tones, are converging.
One of the interesting offshoots of the smoother tone is the emphasis of some
of the formant frequencies common to spoken language. Maybe he's trying to
move to the "talking guitar" ideal. There is a woody resonance in the more
muted tone that contrasts really nicely with Steve Hunts slightly buzzier solo
synth tone.
With all this talk of computer analysis and tone, you're probably thinking
this guy is listening to the CD through some funny looking multimedia
speakers. Just to put my listening environment into the equation, I'm in my
home studio/office listening to the CD play from my Mac's internal Sony CD-ROM
drive running through a Mackie 1604 mixer flat into an Alesis RA 100 power amp
and a set of Alesis Monitor One speakers. The Monitor Ones are smooth but
true! The weak link is the audio output side of the CD ROM drive (around 86 dB
SNR).
Reverb Programming and Solo Tone
Perhaps part of the softening of Holdsworth's tone is the thicker reverb
programming he applies to his guitar on this recording. Often his guitar
appears farther back on the sound stage than the drum kit, thanks to a
slightly waterlogged reverb setting.
Rhythm Guitar Tone
The "other" tone that is as much a signature for Holdsworth is the chorusy,
clean rhythm tone he uses throughout the recording. One of the interesting
facets of his rhythm playing are the tight clusters he uses in voicing chords
with lots of upper partials. What may appear to be heavily chorused maybe
voicings with unisons pushed slightly out of tune.
Synth, Samples, and Computers
The title track, Track 4, screams computer sequence. Unfortunately there is an
undertone in the scream ... cheezy. The groove, such as it is, is quantized
into Lawrence Welk Land. In addition the percussion samples don't have much
presence and appear really weak when the guitar finally enters at the 3 minute
mark. Maybe the samples are OK, it's just that the guitar is so wonderful!
Walter Becker was quoted in Guitar Player's Dec. '94 issue: "I hate when
people have the drum machine play fills. I tried not to imitate a drummer, but
to create a groove and work over it." I would suggest that we ask drum
programmers to program funky fills. Enough said.
Steve Hunt's solo tone on Hall of Mirrors (Track 5) is very reminiscent of
Allan Holdsworth's synth axe tone, in addition, some of the quartal lines show
a heavy Holdsworth influence. Although uncredited, there seems to be some
rhythm tracks featuring that quacking duck, Oberheim-with-breath-controller
sound that Holdsworth used to interesting effect on some earlier recordings.
Solo Symmetry
One of the appeals of Allan Holdsworth's soloing is his tendency to jam the
bar with a LOT of notes. This in and of itself isn't that appealing - there
are plenty of technically proficient guitarists who can put as many notes in.
The interesting thing is the way he uses odd numbered groups of notes, no
steady 16ths or 16th triplets or 32nd note groups, to place some interesting
rhythm figures on each downbeat. It seems like there are times he's thinking
of a tonal colour, or harmony, against a certain chord and will stuff as many
notes on the chord as are necessary to "paint the colour". If it takes 5 notes
to spell the chord then the note groupings start coming in quintuplets. This
observation won't be that popular but I'll make it anyway: Eddie Van Halen
uses similar rhythmic structures in his playing as well. Maybe Eddie actually
listened to Allan at one point (the last is stated firmly tonque in cheek).
Rhythm Section
Gary Husband brings his unique, splashy drum style to the project. I would
venture to say that his drumming has as much to do with the style of the band
as Holdsworth's playing and composition. It certainly is a freer band than the
Road Games era. Can you imagine a Holdsworth band with Dave Weckl at the drum
controls? Come to think of it I guess I made that criticism earlier under the
computer sequence heading ... Skuli Sverrisson acquits himself well on this
release. The odd intonation problem aside he plays with a full tone that fills
out the bottom end. I would like to hear him work with Gary Husband on an "ON"
night. I suspect there is more there than we hear on the CD.
The Big Question!
Anyone who has ever been a Holdsworth booster has to have asked the Big
Question: why is this guy still struggling and not accepted for the rare and
unique improviser he is? I'm going to provide my version of the short answer:
the jazz guys don't hear it because he's using an overdriven tone and the rock
guys don't hear it because the tunes are "tough" to follow. I recognize this
thesis is made of swiss cheeze as Mike Stern plays with even more of an
overdriven rock sound and some of the rock guys can stay awake for longer than
3 chords in a row. So, maybe I don't have the answer. Let's hope that enough
people keep buying and talking about Allan Holdsworth's work that we can hear
more next year.
Contributed by Elliot Freedman <efreedm@hzscg01.att.com>, 3/20/95.
Through what some might call Allan Holdsworth's "SynthAxe years"
the albums _Atavachron_, _Sand_, and _Secrets_ featured not only
undeniably unique work on the guitar-like MIDI controller but also
beautifully formed compositions; themselves perhaps based on the
possibilities offered by the new instrument.
Solo-wise the albums featured not only daring & brilliantly
expressive SynthAxe single-note outings, but also blistering,
roaring, and triumphant electric guitar improvisations.
But what of Holdsworth's chordal electric guitar talents that
formed the striking basis for the _I.O.U._ album, whose tapped
ornamentations and lush progressions gave us tracks such as
"Tokyo Dream" and "Three Sheets To The Wind" on _Road_Games_,
and whose delicate, open voicings could be marvelled at on such
tracks as "Home" and "The Un-Merry-Go-Round, Part IV" on the
_Metal_Fatigue_ album?
While some of the SynthAxe tracks on _Atavachron_, _Sand_, and
_Secrets_ ("Non Brewed Condiment", "Looking Glass", "Pud Wud")
might well have been written -- and have indeed been heard
performed live -- on the guitar, tracks featuring clean chordal
guitar, it seems, were held to a minimum on these albums (almost
exclusively to the tracks "Funnels" and "54 Duncan Terrace").
The much anticipated 1992 album _Wardenclyffe_Tower_, an
important juncture for Holdsworth bridging the SynthAxe period
and a new period encouraged by new baritone electric guitar
instruments, brought clean guitar work more prominently into the
forefront with compositions such as "Zarabeth", (the lovely but
all-too-brief) "Oneiric Moor", and "Sphere Of Innocence".
_Hard_Hat_Area_, Holdsworth's most recent album and one having
very much a group sound -- the ensemble pieces "Ruhkukah", "Low
Level, High Stakes", "Tullio", and "House Of Mirrors"
interestingly feature not only solos but even shared & traded
'comping' duties by keyboardist Steve Hunt -- shows a marked
return to chordal electric guitar work.
Here it seems that not only has Holdsworth recorded two tracks
of rich, lush, romantic guitar balladeering in "Low Level, High
Stakes" and "House Of Mirrors" but has also pursued, or perhaps
has resigned himself to pursue (in light of the problems with and
the apparant lack of technical support for the SynthAxe),
SynthAxe-like gestures (close intervallic jabs and broad chordal
blasts especially) on the electric guitar as in the backing
tracks of "Ruhkukah" and "Tullio"; the latter featuring some
sparkling plucked harmonics in its climactic section.
Just as some felt a lack of guitar on the SynthAxe-centred
albums, I lament the relative departure of the SynthAxe from
Holdsworth's current music but do welcome the return to the fore
of provocative chordal electric guitar.
