Steve Vai – ‘Modern Primitive / Passion And Warfare’ [Review]
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Ask any instrumental guitarist who their key influences are, and you can safely bet that Steve Vai’s name will appear somewhere on that list. A former Joe Satriani student, Frank Zappa stunt guitarist, and alumnus of David Lee Roth’s post-Van Halen solo band as well as Alcatrazz and Whitesnake, Steve Vai’s style merges the virtuosic gymnastics, freaky weirdness, and rock star flamboyance required to survive and thrive during his enviable first-hand musical education. Since the 1980s, Vai has climbed every peak the rock world set before him – a fact that’s earned him the respect of peers and fans alike.
Modern Primitive is a career retrospective, Vai-style. Steve Vai is not known for thinking inside the box or doing anything half-assed, preferring instead to constantly immerse himself in a hands-on approach to every detail of every song, album, and show. The results are consistently one of a kind, and Modern Primitive is no different in that regard.
The first half of this release comprises thirteen cuts selected from the period between Steve Vai’s first album – 1984’s Flex-Able – and the second half of this mammoth set, one of the instrumental rock world’s finest crown jewels, 1990’s Passion And Warfare.
This is where it all came together.
Retrospective releases tend to be cocky cash-ins, dumped into the market under the assumption that a given artist’s fans will lap up whatever scraps they get given. Modern Primitive is absolutely not one of them; check out its detailed liner notes, and you can tell just by the words alone that Vai feels as passionately about this music as he does about anything else he’s ever done. Virtuosity requires dedication and focus – and Vai’s virtuosity extends well beyond his instrument of choice.
Modern Primitive opener Bop! is an appropriate choice, given its Zappa-esque scat jazz / doo-wop influences. Throw in some ultra-funky bass courtesy of Mumbai-based bassist Mohini Dey, and you have a heavy, quirky, and intense track on your hands…or in your ears, as the case may be. Then, Dark Matter sees long-running Vai drummist Jeremy Colson beating the skin behind riffs that bring to mind The Story Of Light highlight Gravity Storm – and we’re washed away as Modern Primitive really begins crawling out of the Vai-mordial ooze.
Stu Hamm’s signature slap bass mastery introduces Mighty Messengers, a track originally penned for Steve Vai’s mid-‘80s band The Classified and entirely recorded from scratch with its rhythm section, also including monster drummer Chris Frazier. It’s the first vocal-led tune on Modern Primitive, and it’s a real beast, up there alongside Vai’s best. Also: insane guitar-bass solo section. If you’re asking for more here, you’re just being greedy.
The Lost Chord sees the welcome return of Sex And Religion-era Vai vocalist Devin Townsend – and the strapping young-at-heart lad gives everything he has (including additional lyrics) in order to serve my favourite song from Modern Primitive. This track is proof that you don’t need buckets of distortion and a chugging eight-string riff in order to get heavy; it’s dense, intense, and gorgeous, crammed with lush darkness.
Upanishads – named after a set of sacred Hindu texts – offers a deep gaze into Steve Vai’s spiritual side. Sitars shimmer; expensive chords earn their keep; delicate melodies weave over, under, and through each other. Wow.
Back to fun with Fast Note People, which sounds on the surface like a wanky shredfest. In reality, the flurries are employed tastefully while Vai’s voice soars over it all. Proof that you shouldn’t judge a song by its title.
Seventh song time. And We Are One is a love song that represents a day in Steve’s life alongside his wife, Pia – and there’s no doubt that plenty of guitar-loving couples out there will make this one “Our Song”. The seventh song on Vai’s albums always offer some form of reflection, and this one is no different. Spectacular.
Craving some intensity? Never Forever is the song you need. Pulsing grooves; long notes; another top-class vocal performance from Modern Primitive’s creator; a mesmerizing solo spot. Once Modern Primitive gets given the Naked Tracks treatment, bedroom improvisers the world over will have a lot of fun with it. Next up, Lights Are On gets heavy and funky, super-tight runs and tortured pick squeals coming, going, and inspiring plenty of repeated listens fuelled by one question: Just what the fuck was that?
Classic rock territory isn’t normally something the guitar community would associate with Vai – but No Pockets’ intro sees him salute the ‘60s and ‘70s while turning up the tightness to neckbreaking levels. As a whole, No Pockets ends up becoming the kind of track that brings to mind 90125-era Yes jamming with Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. Once more, Vai makes the impossible possible.
Modern Primitive’s final track comes in three parts totalling over twenty minutes. Pink And Blows Over is another tune written with but never recorded by The Classified, and it is a fucking monster. Harmonically, it’s way out there, Vai’s band playing the part of an orchestra as wonderful female vocals, massively extended keyboard excursions, and tongue-in-cheek jazz workouts pass by and Modern Primitive finally reaches its literal climax.
Play the full Modern Primitive / Passion And Warfare 25th Anniversary Edition double album from beginning to end, and Pink And Blows Over gives way to Liberty. This is the point at which Modern Primitive really proves its ability to fill in the Flex-Able-to-Passion And Warfare gap. The flow from Modern Primitive into the remastered version of Passion And Warfare is completely seamless.
Listening to Passion And Warfare – one of my favourite albums of all time – in its remastered version is an incredible, incredible experience. Enough has already been written about songs like Erotic Nightmares and For The Love Of God – but even after Passion And Warfare is over, there’s still more to come. Vai just keeps on giving – and his fans, listening to the very end, will find their patience rewarded.
Lovely Elixir brings to mind not only Santana, but also Passion And Warfare’s own seventh song, For The Love Of God. The full Modern Primitive / Passion And Warfare package is billed by the mind behind it as “Cro-Magnon Vai,” and for me this track may be the most telling. Although it’s not clear from the liner notes exactly when Lovely Elixir was originally written or recorded, it certainly sounds like the missing link between two of the six-string’s most soulful players.
Beyond an alternate-solo version of Modern Primitive’s So We Are One, Vai’s latest masterpiece concludes with As Above and So Below – a pair of songs originally intended to open and close Passion And Warfare. Bookends they may be, but they’re still illuminating in their own rights – and a tantalising glimpse into What-If World, the musical multiverse where every possible version of Passion And Warfare exists alongside the version we can hear in all its glory as of today.
On that note, if the multiverse actually exists, that means that a universe where Steve Vai stopped playing guitar altogether and became a hit songwriter instead also exists. Just think – instead of making Modern Primitive and Passion And Warfare, in some alternate universe Steve Vai is celebrating his contributions to Justin Bieber’s back catalogue, probably on a boat, surrounded by champagne, supermodels, sycophants, and heaped servings of powdered drugs.
In a world beset by modern anxieties, Modern Primitive and Passion And Warfare are at least two reasons to be happy that we live in this version of reality.
TMMP RATING: 100% & 100% (Essential Listening!)
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