Marco Minnemann – ‘Above The Roses’ [Review]
UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:
Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!
Calling Marco Minnemann prolific is a little bit of an understatement. This guy is easily one of the hardest-working drummers on the weirder side of showbiz, playing on no fewer than five of TMMP’s Top Albums Of 2015. That’s one studio album (Tres Caballeros) and one live album (Culture Clash Live!) as part of fusion trio The Aristocrats; one studio album with guitar virtuoso Joe Satriani (Shockwave Supernova, TMMP’s top album of the year alongside Jon Gomm’s Live In The Acoustic Asylum); one studio album with Porcupine Tree frontman and prog godfather Steven Wilson (Hand. Cannot. Erase.); and, finally, an 18-track beast of a solo album called Celebration.
Phew. That’s just Marco Minnemann’s recorded output, too; add in countless live dates, and you have a hell of a hectic schedule.
Now, Marco Minnemann has another solo album out – and with more Satriani dates followed by G3 2016 tour appearances with both Joe Satriani and The Aristocrats, this year looks to be business as usual.
Above The Roses is anything but business as usual. Long-term Marco fans – and long-term TMMP readers who’ve already caught Celebration and its predecessor, EEPS – will be well aware than Marco Minnemann is more than just a drumstick-wielding workhorse. He’s a constantly evolving, relentlessly adventurous, and fascinating solo artist in his own right.
Weighing in at eleven tracks, Above The Roses looks on paper to be significantly less dense than Celebration or EEPS, both of which stood monolithic at eighteen tracks each. In terms of running times, Above The Roses clocks in at one hour compared to EEPS’ eighty minutes, and Celebration’s seventy-two. But make no mistake: Above The Roses is no less challenging, regardless of the numbers involved.
As always, the breadth of influences Marco Minnemann brings to the table reflects a mind that never seems comfortable sticking to a single path. And thank fuck for that. Opening track Sunday tastes like Frank Zappa at his most delicious; Daddy Won’t Be Home Tonight contains shades of Pink Floyd; personal favourite Angels Fall Like Rain digs into Van Halen vibes; Nothing Stays stays spicy with a little Led Zeppelin flavour; a couple of Conditional Love’s sections nod in Steve Vai’s direction; and LoveFearWarPain edges into Nine Inch Nails territory with filthy synths before oddly-filtered sunshine begins cracking through the clouds.
None of Above The Roses’ tracks are pastiches, though. This album is, as always with Marco Minnemann’s work, the result of spottable influences being filtered, ground down, mutated and reengineered in order to express thoughts and emotions that wouldn’t find freedom in any other context. There’s a constant sense of deep-rooted honesty, gut-level determination, and salute-worthy vulnerability that you’ll never hear in the work of those set on regurgitating tried and tested and tired-if-not-lifeless formulae.
Above The Roses is a wonderfully weird and vibrantly produced album that once again provokes the question: How does Marco Minnemann remain so restlessly creative? Perhaps the answer doesn’t really matter; what does matter is that he continues to do it.
The world is a better place with artists like Marco Minnemann in it. Full stop.
TMMP RATING: 100% (Essential listening!)
Was this review on the money or off the mark? Subscribe for free to my YouTube channel, leave a comment, and let me know!
You can also find me on Twitter by clicking here.
See you in the next video!