PLINI: Impulse Voices (PROGRESSIVE METAL,-): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

For several years now, Plini has been asserting itself as the future of the instrumental guitar. Little by little, the Australian has put everyone in agreement, and notably the great Steve Vai who spotted him on his first album in 2016, "Handmate Cities", and who invited him in 2019 as a guest speaker at the Vai Academy alongside Joe Satriani and Devin Townsend, no less. Since the release of the excellent EP "Sunhead", we were waiting with impatience for the future of the guitar to become its present. This is now done with the release of the Sydney prodigy's second album, "Impulse Voices", which stands out as the perfect synthesis of tradition and modernity.

While other guitarists spend a lifetime searching for the identity of their music and finding the right balance between technique and musicality, Plini has had his own style from the beginning, a style that is immediately recognizable and that makes him much more than a guitarist. The Australian may have mastered all the advanced techniques of the shred, but he is first and foremost a musician. All his talent can be summed up in one formula: making complex scores accessible and melodious.

"Impulse Voices" is one of those rare albums that can be listened to over and over again with tenfold pleasure each time. All the ingredients of Plini's music are concentrated in these nine pieces of a crazy class: djent rhythmics ('I'll Tell You Someday'), progressive structures ('The Glass Bead Game'), a guitar touch of an impressive musicality often close to Satriani ('Pan') and a constant melodic research borrowed from jazz ('Papelillo' and his subtle tribute to John Coltrane).

Much more than an instrumental guitar album, "Impulse Voices" is a true musical work in which each part is orchestrated to create aerial and delicate atmospheres ('Perfume') based on a precise melodic research. Moreover, Plini's guitar often gives way to other instruments: keyboards ('Last Call'), piano ('Ona_1154'), harp ('The Glass Bead Game'), saxophone (the magnificent 'Pan'). As a good conductor of his own music, Plini manages, in the manner of a Devin Townsend ('Impulse Voices') to make the most elaborate compositions ('The Glass Bead Game') fluid and coherent.

"Impulse Voices" is an album of great class. Subtle and delicate, it achieves the feat of being as technical as it is warm thanks to a constant melodic research. With his singular personality and his fabulous talent as a composer, Plini reinvents jazz-rock and establishes himself as the most gifted guitarist of his generation. - Official website

PLINI

IMPULSE VOICES

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE METAL