Band : Joe Satriani

Album title : Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock

Label : Epic

Distributor : Sony-BMG

Release date : 01/04/2008

Release : CD

Ach, the new Satriani ...you know, he's never disappointed me...in fact, the man's instrumental albums have always been an incomparably great source of joy!

Following the release of the previous album Super Colossal (which sold over 12,000 copies in the first week in the US alone, landing it onto #86 on the charts) in March of 2006, Satriani undertook G3 dates (in partnership with John Petrucci and Eric Johnson ) in South Am eric a (Brazil, Chile, Argentine, and Mexico) in October, after which Petrucci and Satch hooked up with Steve Vai for more G3 gigs in Australia during December. Somewhere in between, Joe also found time to contribute guiat guitar toi Marilyn Manson guitarist John 5 's solo album The Devil Knows My Name . Further G3 dates came in March 2007, when Joe and John got together with Paul Gilbert for a North Am eric an tour.

Release-wize, 2006 also was the coming of Satriani Live! , a double CD outing recorded during the Super Colossal Tour earlier that year (before the album was even released), which was also available as DVD with bonus features. August 2007 saw the release of a 20 th anniversary version of Satriani 's classic Surfing With The Alien album, the two-disc set not only holding the original recordings in a completely remastered version, but also a previously unseen live show fimed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988 (enhanced with new liner notes by Joe , and memorabilia from Joe 's personal archives).

Now, the new album is again a very varied thing, with (as usual) more energetic tracks alternating against more introvert ones ("Come On Baby" even introducing a somewhat sad note), ... with of course again a "vocal" track, this time "I Just Wanna Rock" , which deals with this odd idea of a robot on the run coming in contact with a Rock concert (again a lyrically rather simple one, with Joe 's distorted voice as the Robot and no less than 36 people doin' the crowd chant – represented by the track's title, or what did you think?), and Joe 's occasionally ethnic flavoured song (this time the album closer "Andalusia ", which is at least aurally representative for the area in the acoustic opening of the track). Actually, if you'd like some explanations with each of the other songs, plus get an earful of each one of 'em, it suffices to surf to satriani.com, where Satch has posted a podcast giving us exactly that! Also, there's a full length version of said song, as well as an hilarious video for it! Check it out man, because it's really a very catchy tune, and a great video to boot! Just like on previous albums, Joe 's worked with long-time drummer Jeff Campitelli (who was already there for Surfing With The Alien ), co-producer John Cuniberti (who also handles the tambourine on 3 songs, bassist Matt Bissonette (plays on 7 of the 10 tracks), and has...his son, his father?... ZZ Satriani play a bit of Jazzy sax in the intro of "Professor Satchafunkilus".

European live Satch fans can start rejoicing in the fact that The Man starts his European tour on April 30 th . Kicking off in Lisbon, Portugal, there'll be 4 gigs in Spain, a gig in Switzerland and Holland preceeding an 11-gig tour of the UK (including Dublin in North-Ireland). Following two more gigs in France, it's time for Belgium, where Joe and his band will be playing at Brussel's Cirque Royal on May 28 th before continuing on to Germany (4 gigs) and further concerts running until July 13 (for further details, again consult satriani.com). Also, there will be a limited deluxe version of the album, including a bonus DVD containing a studio feature and footage shot during the 2007 Surfing With The Alien Anniversary Tour (3 live songs plus behind-the-scenes footage in Los Angeles and San Fransisco).

As per usual, this is definite "Best Album Of 2008"-list material...but then I already supposed it was gonna be even before I actually lístened to the music within. Several listening sessions later I'm still not bored with àny one of the 10 tracks (total listening time just over 54 minutes, by the way), so my initial thoughts about the album are confirmed!

98/100

Tony.