Coenen, Marcel - Guitartalk


Year of Release: 2003
Label: Lion Music
Catalog Number: LMC078
Format: CD
Total Time: 50:10:00

Marcel Coenen is no stranger to many. He played in several bands in projects, but is mostly known for his work with Lemur Voice and currently with Sun Caged. In 1998 he released a demo tape, called Guitartalk, with four songs that he had recorded himself, at his own house, using a 4 track recorder. One year later a CD with the same title was released by Coenen, this time containing 9 tracks. And now this independent release has now become an official release, as Lion Music was interested in re releasing it. So, three more tracks were added and for a limited number a VCD was included.

About some albums you can write a book, and with some you should not waste any words. In the case of Guitartalk I am not going to waste much words. It is time to let the guitar talk! Everything but the guitar comes out of a drum computer, but this is merely to turn the pure guitar music into a song, and they are quite good to listen to! Most songs were originally written for the Dutch National Guitar championship in 1998, and they show the many sides of Coenen. Heavy riffs (like in "Independence Day"), shredding (like in "Rage Against Time"), Satriani-like pieces, such as "Inner Alchemy," which gave me goosebumps all over, fantastic song. Every song is different in style and this makes it a varied and entertaining album. Although these kind of albums are very quickly labelled "musicians music" or "too technical," I, as a non-musician, enjoyed the album very much. And what about Marcel Coenen's version of the Dutch national anthem?? I bet if the Queen would hear it, she would spontaneously start to headbang along.

The official website of Marcel Coenen gives with every track the background and how it was recorded, so I suggest you check that out. If you are lucky, try to get the limited edition, which has a video CD, where you can see Marcel play all the songs on the album in his own living room! So don't waste time and get this album, you'll love it. I did and still do. It gives you a good document on how good Marcel Coenen is, one of Netherlands best guitar players.

Similar Bands: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai

[This review originally appeared December 2003 at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]
Tracklisting:
Independence Day / Race Against Time / Inner Alchemy / Fusion / Rebel / Fairy Tale / The Wet Season / Anthem / Shoreline / Moyra / Move That Groove / Endless

Musicians:
Marcel Coenen - guitar, programming, production, engineering, mixing

Discography:
Lemur Voice - Insights (1996)
Divided (1998)
Sun Caged - Sun Caged (2003)
Guitartalk (1998/2003)
Sun Caged - Artemisia (2007)

Genre: Various

Origin NL

Added: December 8th 2004
Reviewer: Marcel Haster
Score:
Artist website: www.marcelcoenen.com/
Hits: 2216
Language: english

  

[ Back to Reviews Index | Post Comment ]