Joe Satriani
may have retained the services of keyboardist
Mike Keneally
for
Shockwave Supernova
, the guitarist's 15th studio album --
Keneally
has been in
Satch
's orbit for a while now -- but he chose to invite bassist
Bryan Beller
and drummer
Marco Minnemann
(from the inventive instrumental rock band
the Aristocrats
) to be his rhythm section for the bulk of the record. This slight shakeup reinvigorates
Satriani
, who already sounded spry on
Unstoppable Momentum
. Where that record hearkened back to his '80s heyday, splitting time between arena-friendly riffing and lyrical solos,
exists in the heady world of intricate time signatures and elastic instrumental interplay; it is more the child of pre-MTV AOR -- a world where
Rush
and
Allan Holdsworth
split time on the stereo of MAD Magazine readers. It's proud egghead music that grooves on its own technical acumen, where
and company love to mess with expectations by sliding into a swinging blues groove or dabbling in a bit of bossa nova. What matters, as it always does on a
album, is the instruments, but more so than on his other records,
feels like a collaborative record; it's as fun to hear him play with his band as it is to hear him soar on his own. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine