Reviews
Tibbetts has been an ECM artist [since 1982], pursuing a movable crossroads of modal psychedelia, dreamscape electronics and ceremonial rhythms across the eight albums anthologised in this set. If you are new to Tibbetts, Hellbound Train is an exciting introduction – with an epic journey on the other side of the door.
Steve Tibbetts is less famous than some other guitarists in the ECM catalog, such as Ralph Towner, Terje Rypdal, Pat Metheny, and Bill Frisell. This 2-CD retrospective shows why he deserves equal attention. As obsessive in his sequencing as he is in layering his compositions, Tibbetts sampled the endings and beginnings of 28 pieces and programmed the songs into a non-chronological narrative flow.
Hellbound Train is a collection that moves seamlessly from atmospheric world music to industrial rock to experimental acoustic jazz and everything in between. Each song flows seamlessly into the next while also referencing a consistent set of textures and themes throughout. The hypertextual nature of this anthology perfectly encapsulates Tibet’s signature sound and methodical artistry.
“Hellbound Train” is the new double album from extraordinary guitarist Steve Tibbetts. His music is energizing and calming while moving across terrains of cascading 12-string guitar to explosive electric distortion and feedback. As always, Tibbetts is accompanied by the driving, tribal rhythms of Marc Anderson.
“a floating cloud of sound that unpredictably delights when a note suddenly (but subtly) blossoms into three or four others”
“Es ist schon ein erhabenes Gefühl in die Unendlichkeit des Tibbett’schen Klangkosmos einzudringen. In dieser Musik findet sich so viel, man sollte sie mehrfach hören, um die Stimmungen auf sich wirken zu lassen.”
“It might be less than an hour long, but Life Of will provide years of deep and rewarding listening.”
“This mannered approach has resulted in a soft, glowing sound that manages to capture plenty of detail and character across a deep, wide soundstage.”
“one of the most underappreciated musicians of our time”
“a beautiful, soothing and utterly unique sound.”
“Tibbetts’s guitar-from-beyond-the-solar-system will take you to realms hitherto glimpsed only by the Hubble space telescope and will offer several plausible explanations of dark matter.”
Audio files from various radio reviews.
“To call Natural Causes exotic would be to deny the labor of love that went into making it. You might say Steve Tibbetts has, in a sense, redefined the word ‘natural’ for all to hear.”
“On Selwa, a Tibetan nun and American guitarist grant each other the space to move freely through their respective disciplines, and the result is a lesson in listening for anyone who is fortunate enough to come across the album.”
“The voice becomes even more magical when shared with the exquisite accompaniment of Tibbett’s guitar and the diversified percussion talents of Anderson.”
“when a new CD from Steve Tibbetts unexpectedly showed up in my mailbox a few weeks ago, I literally shouted for joy, pumped my fists in the air, and ran up the driveway so that I could get it into my CD player just as quickly as possible”
“A Man About A Horse embodies Tibbetts’ established strengths – feral electric guitar solos, complex percussion and meticulously detailed production.”
“Tibbetts is one of this city’s great, underappreciated native sons precisely because he deals in a potent magic that’s not easily understood”
“Tibbetts operates a fine balance between sensitive acoustic shivers and heavily petted electric fuzz…”
“Deep stirrings I can’t even begin to discuss here were triggered by the sound of Chö, and from the response I felt from the audience, it wasn’t just happening to me.”
“What Steve has done on Chö is to produce an utterly compelling musical synthesis by recording traditional Tibetan singing and then weave into it synthesized and acoustic layers of sound that truly capture the imagination.”
American guitarist and soundscape artist Steve Tibbetts was in the middle of his first tour in support of the album Chö last November, and things seemed to be going pretty smoothly. Until he lost one of the Tibetan nuns.
“Å (just say “ah”) successfully joins the hardingfele, a.k.a. hardanger fiddle, with Tibbetts’ distinctive, often beautiful constructions.”
“Å brims with haunting moods and textures that splinter like the spider-web cracks of an ice-covered lake”
“Å” conjures up an enveloping and imagistic soundscape.
“The result is pan-cultural sonic magic that transcends the limitations of language.”
“repeating fiddle phrases evolve into fresh ideas, while Tibbetts’ guitar slithers off on sympathetic tangents, and gongs and other elements chip in their own wry commentary, creating an ebb and flow of stylish nuance like mist on the fjords”
“…music is the only genuine universal language… That idea springs to mind while listening to the latest project from the category-defying tone poet guitarist Steve Tibbetts, who has teamed up with Norwegian hardanger fiddler Knut Hamre for an intriguing and impressionistic set”
“…this new collaboration between jazz guitarist Steve Tibbetts and world music is dazzling”
“There was no encore, and, frankly, none was needed. The window onto bliss that Tibbetts, Anderson and the nuns offered was treat enough.”
“Tibbetts is a man enthralled by the sound of a single strummed chord vibrating in space, his love of the sheer physicality of music makes a perfect marriage with the disembodied songs of Tibetan nun Choying Drolma on Chö”
“Steve Tibbetts… dressed the pieces in the spacious, almost transparent robes of bouzouki, opened-tuned guitar, strings and percussion. A miracle of East / West alchemy.”
“Ever wish you could take a ride on the Space Shuttle? Here’s the alternative: Pick up Steve Tibbetts’ The Fall of Us All instead. It’ll transport you to places in the cosmos you never knew existed.”
“The Fall of Us All is a stunning recording, a whirling devilish dervish of a disk that alternatively assaults and seduces listeners with electric and acoustic energy.”
“A sense of looped transcendentalism is never far away in the first suite with its swooping guitar distortions, Anderson’s relentless and entirely appropriate percussion and the carefully mixed contributions from samples and the other musicians which creates Tibbetts’s unique kinetic sound sculptures.”
“he adds droning guitar textures that shift in slow-motion to create gripping, ever-changing polychords. And atop those come his solos, which fracture every guitar cliche”
“the best thing about “The Fall of Us All” is the astonishing fluidity of Tibbetts’ guitar work, which can be as percussive as a tabla pattern or as liquid and lyrical as a Hendrix solo”
“…his music screams with the brain-melt electric guitar overdubs and pounding percussion which dominate the first half of his latest album, The Fall of Us All.”
“The Fall Of Us All ranks with his best and wildest work (alongside Yr and Exploded View), because it smoothly reconciles Tibbetts’ volatile mood swings with his developing interest in the music of Indonesia and Tibet.”
“this man’s musical teeth seem to be getting sharper and sharper”
“if you’ve grown weary of the Viennese confections underscoring large chunks of Stanley Kubrick’s “2001,” tune out the Strauss and plug in the Tibbetts, and ponder the monolith once again”
“Veering from ambient dreamscapes to violent, post-industrial rave-ups, from spellbinding acoustic fretwork to apocalyptic electric fret burn, Tibbetts’ first album in five years is an emotional and sonic tour-de-force.”
“fingered guitar sings a wanderer’s muse, improvised intricate as gnarled branches of winter oaks”
“we hear original sounds produced from the elements of World Music, intelligent sounds that caress the ear and stir the imagination”
“In short, the sound here is about as fine as you’re likely to wish for: I rate Big Map Idea at the top o′ the heap, sonically.” -Glenn Hammett
“Yr… a trancelike otherworldly quality that is nevertheless rooted in the rock & roll here and now, thanks to periodic wake-up blasts of frenzied Frippaphonic soloing.”
“A beautiful sensitivity displayed by this trio, a contemporary truth…”
“Steve Tibbetts seems intent on producing music that doesn’t have a name. It ain’t Third Stream, though he mixes lots of acoustic guitar and wordless vocals a la Steve Reich in his typically lengthy structures. It ain’t New Age, because it’s got balls and ideas. “
“weaves through two sides, running the emotional gamut from serene to violent, always intense. This is truly unclassifiable, but then, it’s not searching for a compartment.”
“Tibbetts does it with impeccable taste and economy…”
“the drums pound, the guitar riffs flutter and fly, tapes mess around, the energy flows, and somehow it all falls together”
“there is a sobering purity about Tibbetts’ alien mix that shakes you up in some wondrous ways” -David Fricke
“the album is a startling combination of electric guitar, tabla, acoustic guitar, kalimba and a little synthesizer. Tibbetts weaves from heavy rock to several kalimbas playing a duet and it never falters.”
“In a sense, this album is an acknowledgement of the ultimate power of silence over music.”
Review by Paul Fishman Maccabee.
“It has overtones of classical, jazz, rock and Martian style but mostly it is just an extreme pleasure for the senses. Approach with an open mind.” -Larry Kelp
“Another homage to the guitar, but a good one: intricate acoustic excursions (and one crazed electric burst) that never become limp, topped off with enough electronics to produce gimmickry in less sensible hands. Superior background space music that is also actually fun to listen to!”
A few clippings of bad reviews…