Salim Ghazi Saeedi Million Hands Oriental Dancer Review by Gary Hill
Salim Ghazi Saeedi is a musician who originally hailed from Iran, but is now relocated to Australia. I've reviewed quite a few of his albums in the past, and this is his latest. I'd say that it probably falls closest under fusion, but we put fusion in prog rock, anyway. This has a lot of connections to guitar heroes like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. This particular album sometimes gets a bit too freeform for my tastes, but there is enough solid stuff to keep me interested anyway. I should mention that this is a truly solo project with Saeedi writing and playing every bit of this instrumental album.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2017 Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Drenched by Desire of You
Trippy kinds of mellower music starts this. The number gets into more rocking stuff as it carries forward, but continues to drop back to this more sedate stuff. This is like world music meets fusion in a freeform sort of fashion. That said, the rocking stuff has a serious groove to it. This instrumental features some serious amounts of world music soloing.
Bodily Invasion Powering in more hard rocking, there is almost a metal edge to this thing. Yet the layers of sound over the top bring more of a prog or fusion element. I dig the bass that runs around in the background.
United Ubiquity of Flesh
I really like this piece. It has some great melodic elements. It's more pure fusion in a lot of way, but there is still some crunchy metallic sound and world music woven into this thing. It has some particularly dramatic musical moments.
Universal Resurrection Is the Sexiest Day of All There is a bit of an Al Di Meola vibe to some of this. It's another powerhouse fusion rocker that's just plain cool. In some ways this is one of the most direct rockers here. It has some smoking hot soloing built into it. In fact, one could argue that of all the guitar workouts here, this is the most impressive. There are some intriguing changes, too.
At Home Dwells Death (Prelude) This powers in with a nearly metallic edge to it. It's more pure prog rock than fusion, but you still could call it "fusion." I love the energy and fire on this cut. There is a tastefully left-of-center vibe to this. It makes great uses of layers of sound over the top. This is arguably quite King Crimson-like in a number of ways. There is some guitar hero styled soloing later in the track.
At Home Dwells Death The rhythm section opens this and holds the first parts. The drumming gets more intense as it drives forward. Other elements climb on board after a time and start to weave melodic instrumentation. The cut works forward in a definite progressive rock meets fusion kind of vibe. It drops way down for some slow soloing mid-track, but then works back out to the main groove from there. I really dig some of the bass playing on this powered up movement. It drops way down again after that and gradually starts to build back upward. However, it ends before it ever really climbs up very far.
Million Hands Oriental Dancer There is a bit of a blues rock vibe at the beginning of this. In fact, it makes me think of the first Black Sabbath album a bit. The cut drives forward as it continues. There really is a bit of that old school Sabbath sound present in a lot of this cut, but it also is tilted more away from the mainstream than that. This is almost a fusion of metal with jazz elements. The rhythm section driven dropped back movement is definitely cool and brings some hints of world music to this.
Lion's Mouth Is My Home The hard rocking elements on this are classy.The soloing seems to show that there is a common thread between world music and surf sounds. The whole song, though, has a healthy helping of surf guitar.
Let's Sit Naked, O Friend In some ways this has some more hard rocking stuff. On the other hand, the mellower movement is considerably stripped back (pardon the pun). There is a lot of guitar hero sound of artists like Satriani and Vai here. I really dig some of the more fusion oriented stuff, particularly the bass work.
No Wind and I'm Out Acoustic guitar explorations open this piece. It gets other layers over the top as it continues. There are definitely some rocking moments on this piece. It seems a bit more freeform than some of the others, though.
Untameable Heart of the Artist With bass and drums at the start, this cut really resembles trippy stoner metal as it begins. Even as other elements climb in, that same musical concept remains. When a screaming crunch guitar enters, it's reinforced. A drop back brings world guitar soloing. The guitar soloing continues for a time, then a crescendo with other instrumentation ends it.
