Rob Balducci

Rob Balducci - Violet Horizon - 2009 - Favored Nations

“ ROB IS AN EXCELLENT GUITARIST… I’VE ALWAYS HAD HIS CDS AROUND AND I AM WAITING FOR HIM TO BECOME THE NEXT BIG GUITAR PLAYER ” - JOE SATRIANI

“THERE ARE TWO THINGS THAT MAKE AN EFFECTIVE MUSICIAN, ONE IS THE TECHNICAL ABILITY TO PERFORM ON THE INSTRUMENT AND THE SECOND IS AN EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT IN WHAT YOU ARE PLAYING. ROB HAS A REALLY GOOD EQUILIBRIUM FOR THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF THINGS AND THE EMOTIONAL INVESTMENT” - STEVE VAI

A native of New York, Rob Balducci has defined himself as a guitarist, musician, composer and one of the most sought after instructors in New York. Balducci’s music is drenched in layers of sonic colors, each representing a tangible emotion, desire, depth, feeling, thought and mood. Rob said “There’s this cliche that instrumental guitar music has gotten to be too much of a vehicle for soloing and showing off technique. That’s completely the opposite of what I’m trying to do. My music is really like vocal songs with the guitar as the vocals.” Guitar World said after hearing Balducci’s debut CD “ Hum-able Shred! What a concept.” © 2012-2012 ROB BALDUCCI.

“Our past is simultaneous with the present as the future has entirely surpassed, dimension symmetry are as one… can it be between our existance, the violet horizon…” - Rob Balducci: And so starts the journey into the Rob Balducci’s newest CD Violet Horizon. Words worth pondering from a bold Musician, Artist and Guitarist. The words come from the inside cover of the CD. The 4th CD from The Favored Nations Artist is an instrumental journey one will play again and again.Balducci takes his listeners through a musical journey of ups and downs. Beginning with the title track “Violet Horizon” it has some smooth cool tones, then moves into “Friction”. “Friction” will smack you in the mouth with it's wild leads and tones. The song gives the feeling of driving a race car with the gas pedal pushed to the floor and hitting the breaks at the same time, it’s a wild ride through some good musical effects. The songs all have that Rob Balducci’s sigature on them, you will make no mistake when listening to the CD that this is Rob Balducci…at his best. In the song “The Essence”, Balducci uses his signature vibrato work that he is known for along with some old and new school soloing. “Liquid Soul” does just that. It turns your soul to liquid. Balducci uses his guitar techniques to drive some hard edge licks and then makes you feel like the music world has turned to liquid. The phrasing, licks and chops are simply amazing to listen to. Balducci slows it all back down again with some old school blues in the song “Trinity” adding of course some slick vibrato and switching between clean tones and effects. I felt the phrasing in this song was some of the best on the CD. Literally one that I could listen to over and over. The Song “Float” takes you through some well done chorus effects that actually gives the feeling of floating. Slow and easy it’s a good song that will have a calming effect on you. “My Desire”, another favorite of mine. It just has some nice grooves and the phrasing again it is spectacular. Two thumbs up on “Bal’s Grove Thing”, I just loved hearing the old school blues with Rob’s signature tone on them. I feel like he really captured the essence of the blues grooves on this one. Nice clean tones with the flavor of Balducci written all over it. “Shine” has a most origional groove to it. The rhythm had my head bobbing up and down, the leads had it moving back and forth. A very soulful, bright sounding song. “Sleekstack” could easily be the star of the CD. With a guest solo from Guthrie Govan. Rob Balducci fuses a dark metal beat with his leads. It works and it works well. The song again has the signature of Balducci. The tones, effects, groove and vibrato make it an accomplished piece of work. Another guest soloist Dave Weiner adds some cool flavor to “Devil’s Juice”. Weiner Gives the song a fantastic rhythm, Balducci again adds his signature to the song. I think that the new CD from Rob Balducci is easily his best work to date. Keeping pace with what his fans expect from his work yet putting a touch to it that should attract loads of new listeners. Violet Horizon will be in my collection for many years to come. © http://rockhousemethod.blogspot.ie/2009/06/review-rob-balduccis-violet-horizon.html

In case you haven’t heard of Rob Balducci yet here is a little background for you, Rob is a native of New York where he won a contest back in 1990 sponsored by Guitar For The Practicing Musician (I loved that mag!) proclaiming him as New York’s best guitarist. Since then Rob Balducci has defined himself as a guitarist, musician, composer and one of the most sought after instructors in New York. Rob has a popular YouTube Channel where he does “Lick Of The Week”, not to be confused with fellow Favored Nation’s artist and Steve Vai band member Dave Weiner’s Riff Of The Week. Don’t worry they are friends, Dave even features on Violet Horizon! Rob has this to say about his music: “There’s this cliche that instrumental guitar music has gotten to be too much of a vehicle for soloing and showing off technique. That’s completely the opposite of what I’m trying to do. My music is really like vocal songs with the guitar as the vocals.” Balducci’s newest 2009 Favored Nations CD (Steve Vai’s label) is titled Violet Horizon and features 15 new tracks with special guest appearances by Guthrie Govan and Dave Weiner. The album essentially follows in the footsteps of the great guitar albums of the 80s with rocking rhythms and tasteful melodies with a smattering of jaw dropping shred solos. There are some great riffs like the George Lynch-esque Shape Shifter intro and the Wah octave bends in Friction that Steve Vai would be proud of. Guthrie’s solo on Sleestack is, as always, enough to make you want to give up playing guitar and a great conclusion to a track full of blistering solos and moments of “neo-classical” style licks. Dave Weiner also lays down a nice solo among the twisted melodies and driving rhythms of Devil’s Juice. The album isn’t all fast paced rock though there are plenty of slower tracks which give the album a bit of light and shade. The title track for instance is a bluesy solo that wouldn’t be out of place on a Pink Floyd album and there are a couple of ballady tracks such as The Essence which has a nice bit of Whammy Pedal usage throughout. Trinity is another slow track with a bluesy swing to it. If you like listening to guitar instrumental music from artists as Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Andy Timmons then check out Rob Balducci’s Violet Horizon. Rob is also currently working on his debut instructional DVD for The Rock House Method. - January 13, 2010 at 12:00 am | Posted by admin in Reviews © 2013 Guitar Noize. All Rights Reserved.

How much better can guitarists get? This is a great album from the world renowned guitar virtuoso Rob Balducci. Rob never goes over the top, and the album has the perfect balance of fast tempo guitar tracks and downtempo grooves. Listen to Rob playing “Liquid Soul” @ http://www.guitar-tube.com/watch/rob-balducci-plays-liquid-soul Watch him playing the album’s title track @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIBWuCD6bcE Buy Rob’s “Balance” album and support great modern instrumental rock guitar. For more music in the same vein, check out Guthrie Govan (who plays on this album)and Paul Gilbert [Tracks @ 192-244 Kbps: File size = 116 Mb]

TRACKS

1 Violet Horizon 2:10
2 Friction 4:30
3 Devil's Juice 5:01
4 The Essence 6:20
5 Liquid Soul 6:10
6 Shape Shifter 4:46
7 Trinity 5:31
8 Choke 3:49
9 Float (I Remember...) 3:37
10 My Desire 4:56
11 Bal's Groove "Thang" 4:56
12 Shine 4:47
13 Sleestack 6:29
14 Violet Horizon - Reprise 2:50
15 Ilu 9-5 (Bonus Track) 2:20

All tracks composed by Rob Balducci

MUSICIANS

Rob Balducci - Guitars
Dave Weiner - Guitar Solo on “Devil’s Juice”
Guthrie Govan - Guitar Solo on “Sleestack”
Ethan Mexisell - Bass
Chris Ingram - Keyboards on “Trinity”
Ian Fry - Drums