(LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT)
Artist:LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT
Album: "Liquid Tension Experiment"
Total Time: 57:53
Mike Portnoy - Drums
Toshi Iseda - Guitar (1)
Mike Keneally - Guitar (1)
Andy West - Bass (1)
Tony Levin - Bass (2, 5, 9), Stick and NS Upright Bass (2, 5, 9), Chapman Stick and Bass (3)
John Petrucci - Guitars (2, 3, 9)
Jordan Rudess - Keyboards (2, 3, 9)
Trent Gardner - Vocals and Keyboards (4)
Wayne Gardner - Bass (4)
Geoff Downes - Lead Synth Solo on Outro (4)
Sebastian Bach - Lead Vocals (6)
Jake E. Lee - Lead Guitar (6, 7)
Billy Sheehan - Bass (6, 7)
Brendt Altman - Rhythm Guitar (6, 7)
James LaBrie: Lead Vocals (7)
Mark Gage - Producer, Remixing
Peter Morticelli - Executive Producer
Mike Varney - Executive Producer
Jim Brick - Mastering
ABSOLUTE AUDIO - Mastering
David G. Danglis - Design, Layout Design
PINWHEEL CREATIVE - Design, Layout Design
Bob Eather - Photography
Mike Varney - Photography
Claude Duaresne - Photography
Paul La Raia - Background Photo
Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and James LaBrie
appear Courtesy of
EASTWEST RECORDS and ELEKTRA ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
Sebastian Bach appears Courtesy ATLANTIC RECORDING CORPORATION
NOTES BY BRUCE WITTET
MUSIC ETC EDITOR,
MODERN DRUMMER WRITTER, AND
PEOPLE WILL TALK MEDIA FOUNDER.
You have your workaday drummers who pop up on a variety of recording dates and then you have your signature drummers the likes of Keith Moon, John Bonham,Neil Peart, and Mike Portnoy. You can't help but wonder how this latter group might fa re if they were to venture outside their self-made empires of style and sound. Indeed, you wonder about Mike Portnoy, with his stage-engulfing Siamese Monster
drumset and his penchant for creating complex drum parts irrespective of time signature:
Where would he be without DREAM THEATER ?
After all, aside from making Portnoy a cult hero, that band facilitated his flamboyant style and extravagant drumkit.
The answer to our question lies in the forum provided by MAGNA CARTA RECORDS.
Over the years, the label has provided Portnoy with a number of diverse playing environments.
Some of them, such as LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT, have been wildly popular, so much so
that cross-pollination has occured between
mother group and spawn. Others have been,
at very least, provocative and musical.
In all of them, the drummer's essence shines, as is
evident in the current collection of choice Portnoy-fed tracks.
That "essence" is something that lies at root
of what it is to be a drummer. The vocation goes two ways:
One faction is content to slug out a groove,
foregoing any extras or artifice
often on a four-piece
drumkit. The other insists on elaboration,
ornamentation, and, for that purpose,
gathers toms and cymbals as the seashore
attracts polished stones.
Mike Portnoy represents the perfect
marriage of the garage band enthusiast and the
intellectual fusion artist. His exploration of that
array of toms is as playful as it is artsy, just as his
integration of timbales is as explorative as it is Latin.
A few years back he told me, "I'm a drumset player,
not a percussionist. My interest in percussion is more
of an embellishment to drumset playing".
Accordingly, whatever diverse instrument
Mike brings home to his kit, he employs to good effect,
creating brash melodic runs or rousing exclamations.
Meanwhile, it's
relentless bass drums and washing cymbals -
the heart of rock & roll. Portnoy gets to do it all.
This is plain in Mike Portnoy: Prime Cuts
Take "Mad March", for example, in which
Portnoy accompanies Dixie Dreg's bassist Andy
West. The drummer comes up from under-
neath, firing off barrages of double bass drums
in challenging patterns that seem to complexify
and invert themselves, injecting urgency into the apocalyptic vision.
We don't get far into LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT's
"Freedom Of Speech" before
we're lighting up the wooden matches,
especially as Petrucci's first guitar solo nears its peak!
This is grand excitement.
This is romance-epitomized and, for Mike Portnoy, his finest hour. His drumming is built for the arena.
Rapid-fire sixteenth notes on closed hi-hats
are the showers in "Acid Rain", the pitter-pattering echoed by Levin and Petrucci
at various junctures.
Check out Portnoy's "Gene Krupa"
tom underlay at around the 1:48 minute mark.
"Endless Enigma" alternates from gentle to chaotic.
The church-like cadence around the
2:00 point is a clever device, providing
sanctuary and calm.
A drum roll sets us up for "Chris & Kevin's Excellent Adventure".
We can only assume that LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT's Portnoy and
Levin shared laughs while recording this one.
Mike's rollicking half-time shuffle is the perfect
jaunty groove to complement a light-hearted, '
whistling theme.
"Working Man", from the RUSH tribute album
of the same name, is as heavy as heavy
gets a musical migraine spiked by Lee's seamless
scintillating guitar.
Much in the fashion of his stylistic predecessor,
Neil Peart, Portnoy chooses his spaces,
filling them with double bass
drum / tom clusters.
All the while, he forges ahead with the heavy
touch of his mentor. This is vintage, mid-70's
RUSH repertoire and Portnoy is obviously comrtable in his role.
"By-Tor And The Snow Dog", another hats off to RUSH,
evolves into a screamer (at least once the vocal takes over) that is equal parts
Gsddy and Ozzy. Note the drum solos, ever .
creasing in intensity, interspersed between ensemble themes.
"Another Dimension" is an effective Gage
remix in which chattering snippets of instrument
voicese and atipical snare drum timbres
provide a haunting backdrop.
The Vapourspace remix introduces a steady stream of
unusual undulating tones, then slowly pulls
them back, dissolving them into a mist of white noise.
"Three Minute Warning Edit" begins as a funky,
organ laced jam, and graduates through various movemenets
in the same key until it winds down-perhaps due to a
warning that the two-inch tape is at the end
of the reel! Portnoy's opening contribution __-_ opening contribution
is joyfully bouncy, while his handling of the
various transitions is brilliant. Such freedom,
such compositional latitude! It reminds us
why Mike Portnoy is the envy of the
working drummer who enjoys no such free reign.
If you have enjoyed Mike Portnoy's Prime Cuts,
please check out these fine albums from MAGNA CARTA
Sonic Residue From Vapourspace MA-9057
Working Man MA-9010
Encores, Legends & Paradox MA-9026
Liquid Tension Experiment MA-9023
Liquid Tension Experiment 2 MA-9035
Rama 1 MA-9061
- Bruce Wittet
