ALBUM REVIEW

When Jeff Beck left the Yardbirds and saw his power trio ideal fail, he devoted himself to making an instrumental album. Those efforts resulted in 1975's Blow by Blow—the album changed the way people saw the electric guitar. Years along the line, various artists ranging from the Allman Brothers to Joe Satriani cemented “Instrumental Guitar” as a self-sufficient genre.  And while we were late to the party, Bangladesh finally has its first ever guitar instrumental mixed album.
Gutarism Uno was realised online in June by Mushroom Entertainment, and features a wide variety of Bangladeshi guitarists, with experienced names lining up with new talents. Featuring artists ranging from Feedback's Labu Rahman, who's career first started playing with Azam Khan back in the 70's, to young names like Blunderware's Asir Arif and fingerstyle whiz Mashfique Anwar—the album really does reflect how the guitar scene has grown here.

The album features eleven tracks in total and starts off with Mashfique Anwar's amazing A New Beginning.  The song is an acoustic finger-style arrangement and features no other instruments in support. While it's easy for many players to get lost in the percussive finger-style clichés, the song brilliantly captures elements of Al Di Meola and Andy McKee in Mashfique's way. Consider keeping this song as a soundtrack for your morning cup of tea.

The second track is Labu Rahman's “DiRP.”With a vibe similar to the 80's era Vinnie Moore or Marty Friedman, it is among the highlights of the album in terms of expression and features an intricate balance of phrasing and guitar pyrotechnics. A good ballad for when you're feeling not so cheerful. The songs “Lovestruck” by 12 AM's Shaikh Salekin and “Behind Your Veil” by Ashique M. Fahim build on “DiRP”'s expressiveness but add Ambient vibes to the tracks. “Lovestruck” features an impressive new age backdrop for Salekin's wonderful phrasing while “Behind Your Veil” is more upbeat and uses multiple guitar tracks, rather than other instruments, for the ambient vibe.

“Drift” by Syed Ali and “Jam DeAmor” by Rousseau Mannan are both ballads but take opposite approaches, with the former being the first to break out a wah pedal in the album and the latter being a much slower journey through a romantic melody. However Shrapnel Method's Samir Hafiz probably delivers the best display of all round technique in the album in his track “TRS” which features very inventive whammy use.

Moving away from the ambient vibes, De-Illumation's Sazzad Arefeen offers an adrenaline pumping metal anthem in “Badol Diner Gaan” while Kazi Faisal's “Ki Ajob” is a similar explosion of guitar showmanship with a slight tinge of 90's grunge although it is pretty eclectic and does feature some blues and virtuosic right handed tapping. Asir Arif's “Big City Chase Down” is a jazz-blues mashup while Saif Q's “Dr. Funk” stays true to its name with a refreshing funky song that moves away from the rest of the album, it's one of the must-hears in the playlist.

Guitarism Uno is a strong album, with a pretty diverse arrangement of music and is a sincere showcase of how far we as a nation have come with the electric guitar. You could call it a “coming of age” album in a way.
The album is available digitally and can be purchased from iTunes, Bandcamp or with bKash.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/guitarismuno

Special thanks to ME Label for providing the album for review.