THE LINEUP
The month’s best guitar music – a hand-picked selection of the finest fretwork on wax
Various Artists
Quarto Valley Records (available now) 9/10
An all-star cast plays the music of the legendary three-piece
As Malcolm Bruce explains further over the page, Cream’s many celebrated songs are reimagined here in acoustic format with various guests ranging from Ginger Baker and Joe Bonamassa, to Bernie Marsden and Maggie Bell. The songs are largely faithful to the original versions but without Marshall stacks driven to breaking point. In fact, the songs take on a fresh dimension as acoustic guitars, string arrangements and piano take up the instrumental weight.
IFeelFree features Marsden on guitar and Deborah Bonham (the sister of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham) on vocals, creating a lush sound with Neil Murray and Frank Tontoh providing solid foundations. White
Room has Pete Brown on vocals who provides a great Clapton-esque growl, with a vibrant string quartet arrangement that shapes much of the band’s sound, while Sunshine OfYourLove breaks the mould a touch as Bernie and Joe Bonamassa take on guitar and vocal duties with restrained overdriven guitar here from JoBo, the only artist to stretch the unplugged rules. With Ginger Baker on drums, it’s a solid rendition of Cream’s most well-loved anthem.
The JoBo and Bernie vocal/guitar partnership is repeated on Crossroads, this time without electric guitar: a nice acoustic solo with bends and bluesy flurries that gives us more than a whiff of Robert Johnson’s 1930s original. Elsewhere, Spoonful, Badge and Politician make the cut – all great – while the closer is Born UnderABad Sign with Paul Rodgers on vocals and some great acoustic licks from Bernie. Awonderful tribute to a magnificent band.
Standout track: Born UnderABad Sign
For fans of: Cream, Clapton, Baker and Bruce
Steven Wilson
The Harmony Codex
Virgin (available now) 10/10
Prog force majeure produces a movie for the ears
Steven Wilson’s latest solo project places analogue synths at the forefront of his sonic landscaping. That’s not to say that the guitar has taken a back seat on The Harmony Codex, his seventh album, but maybe you have to dig a little deeper in the mix to hear it. And while we’re talking about the mix, it’s quite honestly sublime: thick swathes of harmony vocals rise and fall amid Wilson’s characteristically ear-catching songwriting arrangements. Niko Tsonev provides a smattering of highly melodic guitar lead work on tracks like Wilson’s duet with the excellent Ninet Tayeb, Rock Bottom, and later on in Time Is Running Out and Staircase. David Kollar takes over for a marvellously disjointed guitar attack on Actual BrutalFacts, but the
