{"id":48571,"date":"2015-03-04T20:47:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T01:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=48571"},"modified":"2015-03-04T20:47:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T01:47:33","slug":"nick-johnston-atomic-mind-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2015\/nick-johnston-atomic-mind-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Nick Johnston | Atomic Mind<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"nickHere is a collection of ten home-made tracks which proves you don\u2019t have to have virtuoso chops or a huge production budget to create your own universe. Johnston uses styles ranging from country to surf as launching pads for his extrapolations, and each time manages to take you outside of the everyday. Opener \u201cAtomic Mind\u201d takes you in immediately. Propelled by aggressive riffing, the through-composed gem blends in a languid melody into the rhythmic fabric of the piece. It is done so seamlessly, you instantly know you are dealing with a real composer \u2014 daring and unafraid of far-flung extrapolations. <\/p>\n

\u201cWonderful Madness\u201d is another highlight where the slow-paced melody tells a multi-layered story. Satriani\u2019s stamp is more obvious here than on any other track. But the maestro\u2019s influence is hard to escape these days if you try to make instrumental guitar sound both complex and accessible. And Johnston knows how it\u2019s done: \u201cUltra Force\u201d is as memorable as any quality pop tune, and so is \u201cLost in a Dream,\u201d proving that a piece of music doesn\u2019t have to have vocals to stay with you for days. <\/p>\n

Abrasive, overly distorted guitar tone does get on your nerves by the end of the record, but Johnston\u2019s ideas make up for this irritant. This is nothing a pro engineer\/producer can\u2019t cure, and hopefully Johnston does get into a pro studio setting at some point. Simply because his ideas deserve to be presented at their best to be heard by fans of instrumental guitar, as well as by fans of great songwriting. <\/p>\n

Genre: Instrumental Guitar Rock<\/p>\n

Band:
\nNick Johnston \u2014 guitars
\nMarco Minnemann – drums
\nBryan Beller \u2014 bass
\nGuthrie Govan \u2014 guest solo on \u201cSilver Tongued Devil\u201d
\nNJ \u2014 guitars<\/p>\n

Track listing:
\n1.\tAtomic Mind
\n2.\tGhost of the Robot Graveyard
\n3.\tLast Deals of Dead Men
\n4.\tSilver Tongued Devil
\n5.\tOut of the Wasteland
\n6.\tWonderful Madness
\n7.\tUltra Force
\n8.\tScoundrel\u2019s Lounge
\n9.\tLost in a Dream
\n10.\tMy Final Days on a Doomed Planet<\/p>\n

Label: Self-released<\/p>\n

Online: http:\/\/www.nickjohnstonmusic.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 7\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alissa Ordabai – Senior Columnist — Here is a collection of ten home-made tracks which proves you don\u2019t have to have virtuoso chops or a huge production budget to create your own universe. Johnston […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":48572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12394],"tags":[10894,2317,3872,10893],"class_list":{"0":"post-48571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2015","8":"tag-atomic-mind","9":"tag-cd-review","10":"tag-instrumental-guitar-rock","11":"tag-nick-johnston"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}