Over-wrought, self-indulgent, bombastic--hurl every clichéd prog-rock epithet you can think of--this group will suck 'em in and spit 'em right back in a deafening flurry of notes plucked, struck, hammered, and slapped. Without question, these guys ( Dream Theater's drummer and guitarist Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci respectively, keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and bassist Tony Levin) are masters. And they make no apologies for having recorded an album of intensely virtuosic instrumental hard rock. Armed with chops, taste, and panache, LTE groove seamlessly from the lightning-fingered metalfest "Paradigm Shift" to the comical drum & bass duet "Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure"; from the full-throttle jamming on "Universal Mind" to the house-crushing mayhem of "Three Minute Warning." Throughout, the staggering speed and technique of both Portnoy and Petrucci consistently grab center stage. It's a riveting work from start to finish and a scorching testament to the power of musical inspiration and collaboration. --Michael Mikesell
Liquid Tension Experiment,Liquid Tension Experiment,Magna Carta,Fusion,Pop,Prog-Rock/Art Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop
Liquid Tension Experiment
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Liquid Tension Experiment
Liquid Tension Experiment Manufacturer: Magna Carta ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000067YK Release Date: 1998-03-10 |
Tracks:
- Paradigm Shift
- Osmosis
- Kindred Spirits
- The Stretch
- Freedom Of Speech
- Chris And Kevin's Excellent Adventure
- State Of Grace
- Universal Mind
- Three Minute Warning
- Three Minute Warning
- Three Minute Warning
- Three Minute Warning
- Three Minute Warning
Amazon.com
Over-wrought, self-indulgent, bombastic--hurl every clichéd prog-rock epithet you can think of--this group will suck 'em in and spit 'em right back in a deafening flurry of notes plucked, struck, hammered, and slapped. Without question, these guys ( Dream Theater's drummer and guitarist Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci respectively, keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and bassist Tony Levin) are masters. And they make no apologies for having recorded an album of intensely virtuosic instrumental hard rock. Armed with chops, taste, and panache, LTE groove seamlessly from the lightning-fingered metalfest "Paradigm Shift" to the comical drum & bass duet "Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure"; from the full-throttle jamming on "Universal Mind" to the house-crushing mayhem of "Three Minute Warning." Throughout, the staggering speed and technique of both Portnoy and Petrucci consistently grab center stage. It's a riveting work from start to finish and a scorching testament to the power of musical inspiration and collaboration. --Michael MikesellCustomer Reviews:
No way 4 musicians could do this!!!.......2007-06-03
A great buy for any lover of this band.......2007-03-28
Phenomenal Instrumental Prog.....Dream Theater Side Project!.......2006-10-13
Dream Theater, as I'm sure any of you know, is a legendary prog band comprising of 5 virtusos, each one a master of their instrument (or voice, in James Labrie's case). The LTE side-project is also made up of virtuosity. Simply stunning.
The songs range from short and sweet like Osmosis, Chirs and Kevin's Excellent Adventure, and State of Grace to prog EPICS like Paradigm Shift, Universal Mind, and the 30 minute ALL IMPROVISED Three Minute Warning. These guys just go from strength to strength, and if an album made up of all instrumental prog sounds like it's going to be boring or lame, you couldn't be more wrong. This is an album that stands up to repeated listens no problem.
From Mike Portnoy's thunderous and acrobatic drumming to John Petrucci's masterful guitar player, Tony Levin's nimble bass to Jordan Rudess' keyboard wizardry, this is an exceptional album any fan of DT or great prog will love. Get this and their second album and just marvel.....
a reply to "geddysciple".......2006-09-09
This is where it went.......2006-08-19
As the disc was spinning up, a "warning" caught my eye:
"Caution: Three Minute Warning is not for the musically faint-hearted, impatient, or critics of extreme self-indulgence. If you fall into any of the above categories, please hit the stop button on your CD player after Track 8."
So, naturally, I skipped right to Three Minute Warning -- which is a set of 5 tracks totaling 28:31 minutes. While it played, I read the notes in the included booklet.
Yes, this CD package includes actual liner notes, something I used to enjoy Back in The Day, when records were made of vinyl. The notes explained that Three Minute Warning is a 30-minute jam, completely improvised, with not a single note discussed beforehand. What the notes do not mention is that it is TIGHT. This is all-out bashing wailing progressive rock, played by inventive, thoughtful players who enjoy the sounds they can get from their instruments.
The result is a smorgasbord of delightful playing whose parts and instruments fit together seamlessly. It manages to be powerful and dark but still joyful. Levin continues to pull surprises out of his Chapman Stick, and his NS Design electric upright. The organ & keyboard riffs evoke Wakeman's looser, happier moments. The guitar soars and tickles the other instruments along... and the drums are just plain having fun building pulses, pauses and textures.
The album is, by turns, dense and atmospheric, full of unexpected twists and turns. You really get the feeling these guys enjoy playing together.
I heartily recommend this CD.
jmr
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Liquid Tension Experiment 2
Liquid Tension Experiment Manufacturer: Magna Carta ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00000J7UT Release Date: 1999-06-15 |
Tracks:
- Acid Rain
- Biaxident
- 914
- Another Dimension
- When The Water Breaks
- Chewbacca
- Liquid Dreams
- Hourglass
Amazon.com
In 1997, neoprogressive rockers John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater joined with keyboardist Jordan Rudess and veteran bass master Tony Levin to create an adventurous and joyously unrestrained musical environment. On volume 2, surging technical brilliance is abundant--and as provocative as it is impressive. These tracks were largely the result of extemporaneous jamming; each piece comes across as a finely crafted and flawlessly executed composition. Also striking are the enjoyably drastic changes of style. "When the Water Breaks" and "Another Dimension" are eclectic journeys, happily unpredictable. Quieter, more atmospheric moments unfold in tracks such as "Hourglass" and "Chewbacca." Petrucci, Portnoy, and Rudess effortlessly master intricately explosive rhythms and unleash astounding solos. Levin displays his wonderful eccentricities, particularly on the playfully wicked grooves of "914" and "Liquid Dreams." --Mark McCleereyCustomer Reviews:
Worthwhile Leftovers.......2007-07-15
A true Gem with Petrucci/Rudess is the Solo Piano/Guitar disc that is on Vai's "Favored Nations" Label...absolutely worth the effort and every penny.
As good as the first one.......2007-06-13
A great buy for any lover of this band.......2007-06-13
More interesting than the first.......2007-03-27
Even better than the first LTE album........2006-10-27
Liquid Tension Experiment is an instrumental progressive rock super-group of sorts that consists of John Petrucci (guitar) and Mike Portnoy (drums) from Dream Theater, Jordan Rudess (keyboards) of Dixie Dregs & solo fame and the legendary Tony Levin (bass & Chapman Stick) who has played with almost everybody under the moon but is most well known for his work with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel.
They released the first LTE album in 1997 on the progressive rock Magna Carta label. The first release was literally written and recorded during a single weekend. As a result, even though the album was most technically impressive, the extremely short writing and recording time made the album come across as extremely haphazard to me.
The band got back together in late 1998 to record the 2nd LTE album that was to be released in 1999. They had a considerable larger amount of time to make this 2nd album of over-the-top instrumental rock and it definitely shows. The ideas and most importantly the arrangements and songs themselves have a much better feel and don't feel to be flying all over the place at any and every given opportunity like on the first CD.
People should be warned that this album is unapologetically complex and is progressive rock with a capital "P". Being a musician myself, it is quite satisfying listening to this album and hearing musicians of this immense playing caliber just ripping it up. But a lot of people will be surprised at how well thought a lot of the ideas on this album actually are. While there are a few improvised jams on the album, there are also a lot of moments where it is extremely apparent that a lot of thought and hard work went into the tracks.
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The CD itself runs a couple of seconds shy of 74 minutes and here is a breakdown of each of the 8 tracks:
1)Acid Rain: This opener which runs 6 minutes 35 seconds in length starts out the album with a bang. Very fast, very aggressive with some extremely complex riffing and guitar & keyboard interplay from Petrucci and Rudess. Tony Levin gives his Chapman Stick (a 12 string instrument played completely by 2-handed tapping) a workout as well with some very creative doubling of some of the insane sections. I particularly liked the breakdown section near the middle where Petrucci does a blistering solo over a killer groove laid by Portnoy and Levin.
2)Biaxident: My personal favorite track of the album. Lasting 7 minutes 40 seconds, it bursts with some shimmering and beautiful keyboard work by Jordan Rudess. The track starts out very tranquil and peaceful in a sort of way that kind of reminded me of the progressive rock group Marillion at times. The song really gets cranking about a couple of minutes in and the tone of the song gets heavier before backing down into a really interesting section that plays out in sort of a swing feel. Rudess does an amazing piano solo that is very well thought out. Some very tasteful drum work by Portnoy throughout rounds out an extremely strong track.
3)914: Starts out with an extremely heavy (and grooving) bass line laid down by Tony Levin on his Chapman Stick that is doubled with some solid drum work by Portnoy. The song is kind of deceiving as it actually features no guitar on it since Petrucci's wife was in labor during some of the sessions and he had to be by her side leaving Rudess, Levin and Portnoy time to jam. This whole track is completely improvised according to the liner notes. Rudess lays down a very quirky but cool sounding keyboard part using some shimmering tones on his synthesizer. This track is one of the shorter on the album coming in at only 4 minutes 1 second.
4)Another Dimension: This 9 minute 50 second track starts out with some very eerie solo Stick work by the master Tony Levin. A keyboard pad then joins into the mix before a guitar joins doubling Levin's odd-time bass/stick line. This track kind of reminds me of ex-Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian's band Planet X especially with a lot of the tone choices that Jordan Rudess uses to play a lot of the lead synth lines. A very heavy and dense song that gets weirder and weirder as it goes along. Ends with some delightfully atonal swooping by Petrucci and Levin doubling each other. Not the most accessible song on the album, but definitely one of the most interesting.
5)When the Water Breaks: Here we come to the first "epic" of the album. Bursting at the seams with a really long running time of 16 minutes 58 seconds, the track starts out with the cries of a newborn baby before Rudess enters with a very gentle sounding keyboard part that initially sounds like a mobile in a baby's bed/crib. Things quickly begin to heat up with some very complex riffing by the band. This track goes all over the place and features a truly stupendous section that Tony Levin refers to as the "reggae/accordion" section in his comments in the CD's liner notes. Levin plays a stick throughout most of this song though I did notice some traditional bass work in a couple of spots. Petrucci's wife was in labor at this point and he had to leave the writing sessions for this track to be with his wife. The band marks the exact point in the writing process when his wife's water broke, hence the title of the song. (They do this by punctuating the song with a baby's cry right in the middle of the song when she actually gave birth). The song goes on a bit long in some spots but overall boasts a lot of rich and very musical ideas. Tons of fantastic stick and bass work by Levin makes this song one of my favorites (as I am myself a bass player).
5)Chewbacca: Another really long song at 13 minutes 35 seconds. After a very abstract opening with some really strange sound effects, the band starts cranking out a really heavy mid-tempo riff that features some great wah-wah guitar work by Petrucci. Portnoy goes nuts on the drums during quite a few breaks in the song. This is generally regarded as the weakest track on the album, which it is. But that doesn't make it bad since I've actually become somewhat enamored of the song over time. Tony Levin does some very funny and creative things on his Stick that make this song extremely quirky (it sounds like he's trying to mimic the sounds that the Star Wars character the track is named after makes in the movies). Somewhat repetitious, but still has some great moments as well as being the 2nd heaviest song on the album behind Acid Rain. Some very screwy solos by Petrucci on guitar round out this very odd but grooving and sometimes tribal sounding track. Extremely abstract and weird, but endearingly so.
6)Liquid Dreams: Another long one at 10 minutes 48 seconds but this song just is stuffed with great ideas. Another one of the trio songs as Petrucci wasn't present when this song was written and his guitar parts were added on after the fact. As a result, this track really shines the spotlight on Jordan Rudess' amazing and technically proficient keyboard work. I particularly liked the bass line laid down by Tony Levin on this sort of mid-tempo and very atmospheric rocker. Has a really great groove and I kind of wish they would have made it a actually a bit longer. There is a really neat breakdown section of sorts during the last few moments that features some very unique sounding bass (or is it Stick?) along with some very jazzy keyboard work.
7)Hourglass: A big change of pace for this band, this is basically just 4 minutes 26 seconds of some beautiful acoustic guitar and keyboards. While winding up the album in uncharacteristically quiet fashion, this track is extremely strong and basically just a beautiful piece of music.
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and there you have it! This album really had to be heard to be able to truly appreciate what these guys accomplished on this album. It is truly a lot better than their first album and a side-by-side comparison will reveal that this 2nd album is just a whole lot more relaxed sounding and much more well thought out. There are plenty of moments that showcase each of the individual musicians and they seem to blend in together a lot better on this album as well.
As a side note, Jordan Rudess ended up replacing Derek Sherenian in Dream Theater not too long after this album was released. Petrucci and Portnoy were so impressed with how easy they could write music with Rudess that they immediately offered him the keyboard chair in the band in which he accepted. They had wanted Rudess earlier in Dream Theater back in the mid 90's when their original keyboardist Kevin Moore suddenly quit the band in 1994. Rudess was tied up with the Dixie Dregs so Dream Theater ended up getting Derek Sherenian to join the band instead.
As a result of Rudess joining Dream Theater, we probably won't see anymore Liquid Tension Experiment CD's as they are essentially 3/5's of Dream Theater now. But what they accomplished with this side-project (and especially with this album) was some very nice progressive rock that shows that true musical proficiency is still alive and well and that it isn't a problem to be technically proficient on your instrument of choice.
Fans of complex progressive rock like mid 70's Yes will especially like this album as it kind of takes that angle and adds a much heavier feel to it. There are some moments where a couple of tracks get a bit long-winded, but overall this is truly great stuff. This is progressive rock made by progressive rock fans specifically for progressive rock fans.
Highly recommended!
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Liquid Tension Experiment 2
Liquid Tension Experiment ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B00005GRK9 Release Date: 2004-01-20 |
Tracks:
- Acid Rain
- Biaxident
- 914
- Another Dimension
- When the Water Breaks
- Chewbacca
- Liquid Dreams
- Hourglass
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Frowns Are Bad
Moonwater Manufacturer: self-produced ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000JYDEV4 |
Product Description
"Big time drug music for the mind" They created their own version of the music that they loved. Fueled by the atlanta scene at the Wreck Room. When the time was right they ran into the great Rondl and his bass playing gave an edge to the strut and kick in the face when it needed to be kicked and they recorded FROWNS ARE BAD. CONTENTS: 1) I Keep You 2) Frowns Are Bad 3) Unbelievable Day At Home 4) What It COuld Do For You 5) Questionable 6) Pollinating 7) Motorcycle 8) Fine...
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Liquid Tension Experiment Manufacturer: Magna Carta ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000LWIBXK |
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Liquid Tension Experiment
Liquid Tension Experiment Manufacturer: Magna Carta ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000LWIDTC |
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Ruffnation
Samsara Manufacturer: Warner Bros. ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B000IFH9UG |
Product Description
With an accessible blend of bittersweet lyrics and fizzy melodies, the Samsara sound is equal parts Friday night out in the city and Saturday afternoon at the beach. With a sound described as "Ozzy meets Abba," Samsara's record of sing-along melodies, unexpected twists on production, and pop sensibilities practically demands multiple returns to a listener's iPod 'Repeat' button. CONTENTS: 1) Say Goodbye 2) Stand back 3) Darkness in Day 4) Everything Is All Right 5) The Other Side of Never 6) Moonshine 7) Calliope 8) Tuning Out 9) Venus In Furs 10) Channeling The Devil 11) I'm Sorry 12) Maelstrom 13) Late
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Vol. 2-Liquid Tension Experiment
Liquid Tension Experiment ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD ASIN: B0000564YY Release Date: 2004-01-20 |
Customer Reviews:
Amazing!.......2004-10-28
GREAT CD!!!.......2004-04-16
LIQUID TENSION RULES!.......2001-07-20
Rap Music:
- Live at Luther College [Live]
- Look at All the Love We Found: A Tribute to Sublime [Explicit Lyrics]
- Luck of the Draw
- Mad Dogs & Englishmen [Live] [Original recording remastered]
- Menos el Oso
- Mer de Noms [Explicit Lyrics]
- Never Gone [DualDisc]
- Nolita
- Odyssey
- On Your Shore [Content/Copy-Protected CD] [Content/Copy-Protected CD]
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