Support our efforts, sign up to a full membership!
(Start for free)
Register or login with just your e-mail address
Pop / Rock 16/09/2010

David Rhodes' 'Bittersweet' Compared To Led Zeppelin's 'Kashmir' - Rave National Coverage Runs

Hot Songs Around The World

Water
Tyla
328 entries in 20 charts
Lose Control
Teddy Swims
388 entries in 25 charts
Beautiful Things
Benson Boone
234 entries in 26 charts
Houdini
Dua Lipa
313 entries in 26 charts
Lovin On Me
Jack Harlow
327 entries in 23 charts
Stick Season
Noah Kahan
359 entries in 20 charts
Si No Estas
Inigo Quintero
303 entries in 17 charts
Yes, And?
Ariana Grande
195 entries in 27 charts
Overdrive
Ofenbach & Norma Jean Martine
186 entries in 14 charts
Anti-Hero
Taylor Swift
620 entries in 23 charts
Greedy
Tate McRae
682 entries in 28 charts
New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Seth Cohen PR) - 'Bittersweet is deep and thoughtful, to be sure, but it's very much a rock album - the type that Gabriel, Sting and David Byrne just aren't making anymore'

Comparisons to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," and Even Ravel's "Bolero"

M Music & Musicians Magazine, Performer Magazine, Sound + Vision, USA TODAY, BlogCritics and Others Rave for David Rhodes' Debut CD

National magazines have begun to weigh in on guitarist/singer/composer David Rhodes' debut 'Bittersweet', and the response has been extraordinary:

Sound + Vision Magazine raved, 'Bittersweet is deep and thoughtful, to be sure, but it's very much a rock album - the type that Gabriel, Sting and David Byrne just aren't making anymore.'


M Music & Musicians Magazine praised Rhodes' career as 'prodigious,' and buzzed about his 'knack for melding mood and melody.'


BlogCritics added these seminal references: '"If It Could Only Be That Easy," for example, a song that was featured as a USA Today pick of the week in July, builds up a rhythmic crescendo with a world music vibe reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," and even Ravel's "Bolero." It is the kind of music, regardless of the lyrics, that won't get out of your head.'


Other recent or upcoming coverage includes features in Guitar Player Magazine and Performer Magazine, Examiner.com, Melodic and more. After decades working and performing alongside some of the industry's most respected artists, Rhodes has stepped into the spotlight on his solo CD 'Bittersweet' - a dramatic ten-song collection of rock songs with World music undertones, all fueled by his incendiary electric guitar and riveting vocals. Rhodes recently completed a U.S. Tour, opening for Cyndi Lauper. His CD is available now via iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. See press coverage, below. Listen to a streaming audio sampler, here: https://www.sethcohenpr.com/player/davidrhodes/

Sound+Vision Magazine, 10/10
Music: 4 out of 5 stars
Sound: 4 out of 5 star

David Rhodes made a terrific, barely noticed album in 1980 - The View from Here, with his then band, Random Hold - and here, finally, is the follow-up. Blame the three-decade gap on his gig as Peter Gabriel's lead guitarist, which began after Random Hold opened for the singer's 1980 U.S. tour. Bittersweet comes across like a more sophisticated, fleshed-out version of the prog/pop/postpunk fusion that Rhodes was after with his old band. The years with Gabriel have left a mark on his singing (which can sound uncannily close to Peter's) and sometimes on his lyrics (such as the ones that voice sympathy for tragic characters in 'Down by the River,' which first appeared on Gabriel's Plus from Us compilation in 1993). In his music, though, Rhodes has ideas to spare. These 10 tracks are rich with melodies and creative arrangements (including a nod to Motown in 'One Touch'). And, yes, there are guitar heroics, but they're in a textured Robert Fripp/Steve Hackett vein. Bittersweet is deep and thoughtful, to be sure, but it's very much a rock album - the type that Gabriel, Sting, and David Byrne just aren't making anymore. By BRETT MILANO

BLOGCRITICS
By Jack Goodstein
https://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-reviewdavid- rhodes-bittersweet/

David Rhodes, perhaps best known for his long time collaboration with Peter Gabriel, has released Bittersweet, his first solo album to some well deserved acclaim. The CD features Rhodes singing and playing guitar on ten original compositions.
His vocals sparkle with intensity whether he is softly creating a mood or rocking out with passionate verve. Tracks run the gamut from simply orchestrated melodies to avalanches of sound punctuated with pulsating rhythms, often throbbing with multi-cultural echoes. If these songs are any indication of what Rhodes can do, Bittersweet is a debut album long overdue.
In an interview for Performer Magazine Rhodes, telling Will Cady about his composing process, he comes off as modestly cavalier: "When I start, I just start fiddling about." But then he adds that it is the rhythm he generally begins with, and he lets the "sonic structure" grow by parts that suit the sound and the song. It is not strange then that it is the rhythms, their variety and their power, through which his music achieves its force and makes its dominant impression. "If It Could Only Be That Easy," for example, a song that was featured as a USA Today pick of the week in July, builds up a rhythmic crescendo with a world music vibe reminiscent of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir," and even Ravel's "Bolero." It is the kind of music, regardless of the lyrics, that won't get out of your head.
Even in some of the softer songs, there are passages where the rhythms dominate. In "Down By the River," there is an intense throbbing beat that seems to echo the song's description of the pounding of the distraught woman washing clothes in the river water. "Just Two People" uses the vocal repetition of the title phrase as a variation on rhythmic instrumentation. "One Touch" is another tune that uses the lyric to emphasize the beat and the beat to enforce the lyric.
"Bittersweet," the title song, comes last on the CD. It is a plaintive chant with a sweet background vocal and piano line that plays against the lyrical admonition to make the most of all experience, the painful as well as the pleasurable. It serves as the way to deal with the reality that cracks and breaks and knocks you down described in the album's first song "Reality Slips." Like "Crazy Jane" it is important not to settle for the mundane. It is better to burn your hand on a star, than to wear a glove that fits and never to reach for that star. To be crazy like Jane the only way to deal with a life that doesn't have the tidy endings you find in movies. Bittersweet is not a concept album, but it does offer something of a systematic world view, and it sets that world view to an infectious vibrating beat.
Joined by a band including Ged Lynch on the drums, Charlie Jones on bass, Dean Broderick on keyboards and some backup vocal work by Peter Hammell, David Rhodes has come up with a winner.

PERFORMER MAGAZINE
Catching up with David Rhodes
INTERVIEW By: Will Cady
https://performermag.com/Music_Biz/Article/2010/Catching%20up%20with%20David%20Rhodes

After decades working and performing alongside some of the industry's most respected artists (most notably Peter Gabriel), guitarist/singer/composer David Rhodes steps into the spotlight on his upcoming solo record Bittersweet - a dramatic ten-song collection of rock songs with world music undertones, all fueled by his incendiary electric guitar and riveting vocals. Rhodes evokes the ethereal delivery of early Genesis and the fearless musicality of early David Bowie on his confident, gimmick-free debut - this album is the brainchild of a musician's musician, ready for his own voice to be heard.
Rhodes will tour the U.S. this summer, opening for Cyndi Lauper on a series of dates, and headlining shows of his own. In his dynamic live performances, which have earned raves following a recent European tour, Rhodes performs solo but creates layer-upon-layer of sound via his electric guitar and vocals. Using Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 and a Gibson Les Paul Studio Robot to create loops of audio on-stage, Rhodes builds his songs as he goes along.
In your songwriting process, how much of your work is done between you and the guitar and you and the mixing board?
When I start, I just start fiddling about. But generally I start with rhythm so I go looking for grooves and start creating drum loops or I have a little groove part that is my starting point. I don't consciously think I want it to sound like a specific thing or aim for a specific thing. Then it's just about experimenting to maybe come up with sounds and then try to create a part that suits the sound and also suits the song. It's better to let [the sonic structures] grow because then you're not disappointed by what's going on. It should always be experimental, exciting and exploratory.
What was required of you both personally and musically to step up to the leading role on your latest project? Any words of wisdom for someone looking to make the same leap?
Well, I've been nurturing my ego for many years and finally it's bursting! It's like trees or cacti that spend many years building up reserves to flower. I've always written a bit at home and done things aside my other projects. I was just really waiting to be confident enough in the material to take it stages further. So I guess that took quite a long time. Also maybe getting happier with technology and being able to do quite a lot of demoing quite well on my own. Just gotta keep plugging away and trying ideas. Exploring, experimenting and not getting knocked back.
What are you hoping to accomplish with this album and tour?
Well I hope that people will like the record enough to want to own it. If I can just get to the next stage, I'd like to tour with a band as well. I've done a few shows as just a trio, which was quite exciting and that's quite different for me since I had never done that before. I'd like to be able to up it to that level and do well enough to make another record. Little steps.
Let's get technical. What guitar effects did you employ on the record? How about your distortion sound? Tube? Solid State? Digital?
I use Rivera amps, which are nice and punchy and have got some good weight to them and I use a pedal board of junk. I've got two or three distortions on it. The Rivera has great overdrive and I also use an old Matchless HotBox for tube distortion. I've got a couple others that are all digital.
Where do you land on the debate of Analog vs. Digital?
I prefer to work in an analog way that's very hands on where you just fiddle with something and things happen quickly. Having said that, I'm performing solo and I'm completely in the digital domain. I just use my laptop when I go out and do solo shows.
How much of the recording process on Bittersweet was live band and how much was tracking?
I started off with my demos which I spent quite a while fiddling around with. Then I had the band in for four days during which I rerecorded a lot of the guitars, reacting to what we did record live as a band. I was very lucky to work with some very nice people. Charlie Jones on bass who used to be in Page and Plant and is currently touring with Alison Goldfrapp, Ged Lynch on drums who plays with [Peter] Gabriel as well and a guy called Dean Brodrick playing a very funky keyboard...a kind of clavinet through distortion pedals and delay pedals. He was doing some really lovely, strange, off the wall things. If you listen, there are lots of lovely little details in his playing.
What are the challenges of taking this record on the road and translating the music to the stage?
Multifarious! The biggest challenge is feeling bold enough and courageous enough to do it. I've just done a little tour of Europe where I've been traveling by train completely on my own...guitar on my back, laptop in the guitar case, a little pedal board in the suitcase and just me with two bags [running] around Europe. It's kind of scary because there's no safety net at all. There's no spare guitar and no one to help you out when things go wrong, but it's exciting.
With the increased availability of a quality home recording set up, we see more and more readers of Performer self-producing at home. What are some tips for home recording that you can share from your experience?
It's funny because Richard Evans who co-produced my records, he has a studio we work in a lot. We're kind of going back more to recording live instruments and performances. I think the main problem with people fiddling around at home is that you can get so absorbed in the detail of sound that you forget about the performance almost. I think the really crucial thing is to get people still really playing so they mean it. That's the toughest hurdle to overcome. All the other stuff you can spend hours fiddling around with but you've still got to have a high level of performance to make things sound good.


M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE
INDIE SCENE REVIEW, by Lee Zimmerman
https://mmusicmag.com/m/2010/08/david-rhodes-bittersweet/

DAVID RHODES - Bittersweet
David Rhodes' lengthy resume as a guitarist and composer includes work with Paul McCartney, Roy Orbison and Robert Plant, but he is perhaps best known for his 25-year collaborative partnership with Peter Gabriel. Bittersweet is the first solo album of his prodigious career, and his most concerted effort since his work with the band Random Hold in the late '70s. Not surprisingly, songs like 'Bittersweet,' 'Crazy Jane' and 'All I Know' echo the wistful melancholia and spatial trappings of Gabriel's signature style, and Rhodes' atmospheric approach is equally alluring. His knack for melding mood and melody is undiminished.

MELODIC.NET Interview
by Rickard Holmgren (2010-08-18)
https://www.melodic.net/interviewsOne.asp?interviewId=330

David Rhodes have been playing guitar with Peter Gabriel since 1979. Melodic.net had some questions about that and other things in life. Here are the answers

1. Hi and welcome to Melodic.net. How are you?
Hello, and thank you for inviting me here. I'm pretty well, recovering after a day off in Austin. I'm opening for Cyndi Lauper, on a short tour of the U.S..
I met up with Stephen Barber, the string arranger on my record, yesterday, and we spent some time celebrating our friendship again, after too long. Good fun, that left me feeling a little worse for wear!
I'm performing solo, which is a relatively new challenge for me. I use electric guitar and a laptop (no amp); the most portable rig that I can work with. There are limitations, but working with those can be positive and creative. Boundaries and rules can be your friends.
2. For those out there who are not familiar with you, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I've been working in music, mostly playing guitar for people, for the last thirty years or so. For nearly all that time I've worked for Peter Gabriel, recording and touring. I also used to do a lot of sessions, and bits of production.
Over the last few years, I've spent time working with another musician who works for Gabriel, Richard Evans. Together we've created a lot of soundtracks for the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. I've also scored a couple of European features on my own, one a cartoon, the other a romantic comedy. We also produced and collaborated on Gabriel's (Golden Globe nominated) soundtrack for Rabbit Proof Fence.
It's been varied and interesting work. I feel fortunate and privileged that I've been able follow this path for so long.
3. What can you tell us about your latest album?
My latest, indeed my first solo album, is called Bittersweet.
It's a collection of songs that I've gathered together over the last few years.
It's an honest record, really quite personal. The songs are quite simple and direct, with plenty of guitar on them! I was lucky enough, that some good friends were happy and willing to take part in recording it. Ged Lynch, played drums, Charlie Jones played bass, Dean Brodrick played keyboards. Stephen Barber wrote and sorted out the strings for me, and Richard Evans co-produced. Tchad Blake, another long standing friend mixed it, and brought beautiful detail and balance to it.
It sounds good!
4. You have been working closely with Peter Gabriel for about 25 years, what has been the best part of that?...actually since 1979...ouch...
It's always been good fun, a real pleasure and a challenge. The expectation in the studio, is always to play with as much passion, groove and attitude, that you can muster. I guess that applies to the shows too, in all their delightful oddness; the mixture of emotion, dark and light, that is in the performances.
Its been great to play on some wonderful songs, songs that one hopes, have touched and moved people.
5. Who else has influenced your own music?
This is always a difficult question. I wish the fact I used to listen and still listen to Hendrix, could have had a real effect on my playing, sadly his fluidity has flowed right past me, and left me high and dry! I suppose Bowie, Syd Barrett; a lot of English music.
Having said that I used to love Nile Rodgers' solo records.
I guess systems music (Reich), and the discipline of Kraftwerk, where parts change very little, have always appealed to me. This is true of a lot of groove music.
6. During your long career, what has been the biggest change in the industry and how has that affected you as an artist?
Obviously, the change in technology has had the most effect. Before the takeover of computer technology studio musicians would be hired to go in and do a creative job quickly. Now people can stay at home and spend all the time they want achieving the result they want.
This is great for an artist to keep costs low, but the excitement of a gang of musicians tussling their way through a tune can be a truly inspiring experience.
So, as an artist, I try to embrace both ways.
7. What music do you listen to yourself at home?
Tinariwen, are a favourite band that we listen to. Hendrix and Miles Davis are always close to hand. I'm fond of a Norwegian singer, Solveig Slettahjell. My daughter enjoys Michael Buble, which is good but for me the dosage should be kept moderate.
8. Is there a song out there that you wish you had written?
'In A Silent Way', written by Joe Zawinul. It is a wonderfully poetic piece of music. It's very simple and elegant but tremendously evocative. (Stephen Barber, worked on some orchestral arrangements for Zawinul, a few years ago, and asked him how the tune had come about. Zawinul told him that he was in the mountains, of his native Austria, seated at his piano watching the snow fall, and he knocked it out in ten minutes...fabulous.).
I'm going to cheat and have a song too! 'I've Got You Under My Skin', Cole Porter. It is a wonderful song, and with Sinatra singing it, glorious.
9. Name one album that everyone should own.
Probably Miles Davis, 'In A Silent Way'.
It is a beautiful record of restraint and mystery. I never tire of it. The three way percolating keyboard conversation that runs through it, the soloing of Davis and Shorter, the guitar interjections, absolutely wonderful, all on top of the Holland, Williams rhythm section. You can't ask for more.
10. What does the closest future hold for you?
I finish with the Lauper tour at the end of August, then I will return home. One of my first jobs will be to harvest some honey from the bee hives I keep. I'm very excited about that. I'm in my second year of keeping bees, and this will hopefully be my first proper harvest. I'm expecting to do some more touring in Europe, still working the 'Bittersweet' material, but with a trio (bass and drums).
This is an exciting way forward for me. I'd never played in a trio before until we tried three shows in Germany a few weeks ago. It's great fun and challenging. It's a very pure form, and I'm writing new material to suit it. We'll see if I can stick to my rules on that.
11. Thank you for answering the questions, any final words for our readers?
The more you do, the more you can do. Onward and upward! all the best, David

EXAMINER.COM
Two-Part Interview - By Alan Smason
PART ONE: https://www.examiner.com/performing-arts-in-new-orleans/david-rhodes-to-open-for-cyndi-lauper-tomorrow-night
PART TWO: https://www.examiner.com/performing-arts-in-new-orleans/david-rhodes-at-hob-new-orleans-tonight
For the past 25 years David Rhodes has been, more or less, in the background of a British giant, Peter Gabriel. Rhodes, a veteran guitarist and vocalist started out with Random Hold, a group that garnered some attention when they were first starting out in the late 1970s. Gabriel saw the band and was impressed. Random Hold even opened for Gabriel for one of his early solo tours in the early 1980s. The association between the two became ever more close when Gabriel asked Rhodes to work with him in the studio and that relationship has gone on now for a quarter century. Here's how Rhodes recalls it:
Rhodes: It all began when PG came to see the band in a club in London, in 1979. A painter friend of his had suggested he take a look at us, with a view to demoing (sic) his third ("Melt") album. I think he was looking for a more English approach to this particular record than his previous two.
We worked with him for a few days and from that exploratory time, he asked me to join in with his band recording sesions. We became friends through the making of the record and closer friends when I ended up in his touring band. (On the road you inevitably become close...on occasion one can learn a little too much about your cohorts!)
I suppose, as time has gone by, we've shared a lot of artistic interests. I was albready listening to world music when we met and, later during tours, we would visit art museums together. So we enjoyed still enjoy absorbing different cultural influences. Perhaps a sense of play and shamelessness have been important along
Smason: Your early influences seem to parallel mine, namely, early British groups from the Sixties as well as jazz artists. Later, I got very into the punk and new wave scenes. Which were greater in your mind and why?
?Rhodes: The people I spent most of my time with as a teenager, were a bit older than me, and listening to Soft Machine, the Grateful Dead, Gong, Magma, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and some fairly obscure jazz. In a way, punk passed me by, even though I knew Glen Matlock, who was at the same art school as I was.
The punk tenet of not worrying whether you could play an instrument or not, was, and is, important. Ideas should always be at the forefront of the work. I think the New Wave was really just an attitude of not becoming old-fashioned rock, and very good for that.
I suppose when I look back to that formative time, I was absorbing a lot of quite diverse material. I have a great fondness for the quirky, and odd, that I listened to then. The titans of modern music, Hendrix and Miles Davis, that I lapped up then, I still listen to now. What has had the most influence, is difficult to discern (I'm certainly not a jazzer (sic), nor a technical player!). Perhaps the discipline of the minimalists (including Kraftwerk), which I then also heard in the best groove music, has had the most direct colouring on how I play.
I suppose the other thing I've always appreciated is commitment to ideas, rather than technique; the melding together of emotion and sound.
?Smason: Name an influence on your musical career not mentioned above or one that might surprise me.
Rhodes: Probably not a big surprise, but I listened to Syd Barrett (and) The Madcap Laughs, a lot. I would think it is the Englishness, that I responded to, and that struck me, and that has probably stuck with me. It's a naked set of songs from a troubled soul. Playing in the background as Peter Gabriel's studio guitarist for 25 years, David Rhodes has, until now, not done much to establish himself as a solo artist. With the release of his first solo album,"Bittersweet," this past year, he has shown he is not afraid to venture more into the spotlight. Rhodes appears tonight on the New Orleans House of Blues stage as the opening act for Cyndi Lauper, with whom he has been touring throughout the summer. This is the final portion of a two-part interview with Rhodes in support of his appearance in New Orleans.
Smason: I know that you've been featured on several bacjground vocals for Peter Gabriel. On your recent release,"Bittersweet," you were featured on lead vocals on the songs you composed for the album. Was that the first time since your Random Hold days that you were featured as a lead vocalist?
Rhodes: I sang on a couple of records that I'd worked on with a Japanese artist, Akira Inoue. I'd also sung songs for a couple of Italian feature films. I think on those projects I hadn't really found my voice. I feel much more comfortable and at ease now. It's taken a long time to get to this point. I must have been busy doing other things.
?Smason: The musicianship is pretty impressive on what I've been able to hear from "Bittersweet." Can you talk about whom you used on the album?
?Rhodes: Ged Lynch, from PG's band, played drums.Charlie Jones, who tours with Goldfrapp, and was in Page and Plant, played bass. Dean Brodrick, played keyboards. His background, is very much experimental jazz. He brought some deft touches and wonderful colours to proceedings.
?Stephen Barber, (a friend for many years) wrote the string arrangements, and the Tosca Quartet, from Austin, played them. Richard Evans, my working partner on various soundtrack projects, and also in PG's band, co-produced the recordings with me.
?Everyone involved has a strength and solidity to their playing and input, which made the recording process smooth and enjoyable. It's got to be fun, and not too stressful, otherwise you get nowhere.
?Smason: How different was it to record your own music rather than play someone else's?
?Rhodes: The ego has to be more fully formed when it's your own project. (I had some work to do there). There's a feeling that you're both the team captain, and also proud owner of the ball!
?Smason: Do you look to do more songwriting and solo performing in the future?
Rhodes: ...but of course! It feels like the right time to spread my wings.
Smason: Lastly, tell me about the set you perform as an opening act for Cyndi Lauper. How many songs? How did you pick them?
Rhodes: I play for half an hour. Six songs, all of which I think can work for people that don't know the material. It's very much a solo performance, which is quite new to me. I play electric guitar through a computer. On some songs, as I play, I record bits, which I then play along to.
?I enjoy the edginess of being the only person up there making a noise. It feels risky, and is technically a bit fraught. Things can and do go wrong. I've only had one major disaster so far on this trip.
?Smason: What happened?
?Rhodes: I have a self-tuning guitar, which completely lost its way one night. It happened at the beginning of my last tune, so I bailed out and spent the rest of the evening cursing technology, and nursing a beer. Surely the operator can't have screwed up?

Other recent coverage:


USA TODAY
The Playlist: David Rhodes' 'If It Could Only Be That Easy'
By Elysa Gardner, USA TODAY, 7/13/10
The guitarist/singer/songwriter leads the charge this week...
https://www.usatoday.com/life/music/reviews/2010-07-12-playlist13_N.htm

Rock and roll meets world music on David Rhodes' If It Could Only Be That Easy, from his Bittersweet album.
PICK OF THE WEEK - If It Could Only Be That Easy, ?David Rhodes
Rhodes has performed and collaborated with Peter Gabriel for some 25 years. On this track from Bittersweet, the singer/songwriter/guitarist reveals a graceful intensity - not to mention a flair for weaving finespun world-music textures into muscular rock arrangements.

THE BOSTON HERALD
Cyndi Lauper Concert Review, By Brett Milano, 6/28/10
The surprise opener was prog-rock cult figure David Rhodes. Playing solo with electric guitar and loops, Rhodes displayed dramatic vocals, inventive soloing and deep but catchy songwriting.
https://news.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/general/view/20100628for_cyndi_lauper_fans_blues_hides_her_true_colors/srvc=home&position=also

MEDLEYVILLE - Interview feature - 6/10
https://www.medleyville.us/2010/06/sound_over_technique.html
Introduction and interview by Donald Gavron
SOUND OVER TECHNIQUE
David Rhodes doesn't get boxed in by stylistic considerations

MORE ABOUT DAVID RHODES:
Rhodes has built a storied career of collaborations, most notably a 25- year working relationship with Peter Gabriel, during which he has co-written songs, produced/arranged, and performed in Gabriel's band. Warm references to their musical partnership are evident on 'Bittersweet', particularly in the understated beauty of 'Reality Slips' and on 'One Touch'. Rhodes has also produced and/or performed with other acclaimed artists including Paul McCartney, T-Bone Burnett, Roy Orbison, Tim Finn, The Pretenders, and many others.

On 'Bittersweet', Rhodes delivers a vibrant mix of original songs, from the cloudy, wicked guitar groove of 'Just 2 People' to the unsettling, Bowie-infused 'Monster Monster'...from the cinematic 'Down By The River' to the mournful title track - Rhodes has a flair for mixing the light and the dark, the peaceful and the tortured...the bitter and the sweet. Other highlights include the clenched resolve of 'All I Know' and the album's ominous, dense 'If It Could Only Be That Easy', on which Rhodes creates a vista of sound that sweeps the listener down an acrid path. On the soaring, anthemic 'There's a Fine Line,' Rhodes uses multiple time signatures to create a complex, buoyant treatise on the narrow edge between joy and despair.

'Bittersweet' was recorded at Real World Studios in the UK, with Rhodes calling on trusted musician friends to flesh out his vision, among them drummer Ged Lynch, bassist Charlie Jones, keyboard player Dean Brodrick and a cameo from Peter Hammill on backing vocals.

In his dynamic live performances, which have earned raves following a recent European tour, Rhodes performs solo but creates layer-upon-layer of sound via his electric guitar and vocals. Using Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 and a Gibson Les Paul Studio Robot to create loops of audio on-stage, Rhodes builds his songs as he goes along. Here's an example of his one-man 'big sound', as he performs 'One Touch', live in Italy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeW0UTxevCk

More About David Rhodes:
Though perhaps best known for his decades-long professional relationship with Peter Gabriel, guitarist/producer/arranger/composer/singer David Rhodes is also an acclaimed composer of film scores, television scores and music for cutting-edge computer games. With his musical Partner, Richard Evans, Rhodes has also created the soundtracks for documentaries on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic. As a sideman/guitarist, Rhodes' credits are extraordinary - Take a look at remarkable body of work, on this site set-up and maintained by fans: https://www.davidrhodes.org/journal.html
Visit https://www.myspace.com/davidrhodesbittersweet






Most read news of the week


© 2001-2024
top40-charts.com (S4)
about | site map
contact | privacy
Page gen. in 0.0117590 secs // 4 () queries in 0.005699634552002 secs