For those not in the know, Identity Crisis is the new prog rock jazz fusion album to be released by guitar virtuoso Marcelo Paganini (this past December 11th, 2020).

The album features special guests Billy Sherwood (YES/ASIA), Adam Holzman (Steve Wilson Band), Rachel Flowers, Lenny White (Return to Forever), Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa Band), Jan Dumée (Focus), Marc Madoré, Karla Downey, Jamison Smeltz, Damilton Viana, Esdras Ferreira and Adriano Campagnani (Beto Guedes Band).

Five of the six songs of the album were mixed and mastered by Gudjon Sveinsson in Iceland with the lead single 'Circus is Empty' having been mixed by Daniel Boivin in France and mastered by Maor Appelbaum in LA, California, USA.

“When Allan Holdsworth passed away all of a sudden it was up to me and the others to keep guitar composition and playing moving forward," reveals Paganini.

"‘Do your own thing’ he said every time we met. Now Eddie Van Halen passed away as well and we realize how hard it will be,” he further recalls, about his intentions when he started this project.

"I changed the tuning of the guitar so I could not repeat anything I knew before. I decided to only use in the whole album, except for acoustic 12 string intros, the black guitar X-Ing Ibanez - no vibrato bar, bare bones."

"And to record just one guitar per track, to be able to play it live and sound like the album, or better. When live concerts will come back.”

1. 'Bacteria' [8:22]
2. 'Circus is Empty' [5:36]
3. 'Soul Much Further Away' [4:48]
4. 'Learn to Love to Wait' [7:11]
5. 'Tangerine Way' [7:13]
6. 'Captain's Face' [4:59]

Opening on the trippy rock opera 'Bacteria,' Paganini slips seamlessly into the more guitar heavy, drum led, funky attributes of 'Circus is Empty' and then backs that up with the lighter fare of the melodic Summer's day, top down, Zappa-esque breeze of 'Soul Much Further Away.'

Bringing forth some funky slap bass lines, 'Learn to Love to Wait' - which admittedly comes across as a slowed down, disjointed version of most all Level 42 tracks - is a rather effective, if not overly busy track, in and unto itself, and that is followed by the emotively lush storytelling of 'Tangerine Way,' with the album coming to a close on the percussion-imbued musical mish-mash 'Captain's Face.'

The music on Identity Crisis mixes up the best influences from classic prog rock, with unexpected contemporary harmonic solutions and melodic turns.

The songs can break loose by surprise in furious jazz fusion improvisations. As impressive as the casting in the album can be, and it is, the incredible alchemy that happened between Marcelo Paganini and Rachel Flowers in 4 out of 6 songs, at the 11th hour, was a game changer in the intensity of that musical language. [Paganini]

Official Purchase Link

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