By: Michael Popke
uitar virtuosos may finally be wising up. Any hack with a six-string can masturbate
all over a CD filled with faster-than-thou fretwork that lacks imagination and
demands a strong-willed listener. But it takes real talent to craft an instrumental
guitar album that treats each song with the respect it deserves. Enter 39-year-old
James Dallas Caterine - veteran of such rock and metal bands as Sacred Rite, Tragic
Nancy and Time Machine, and a guitarist who's also adept at playing bass, drums and
piano. The 11 tracks (plus one bonus cut) on Caterine's first solo album, Cognition,
embrace lush orchestral arrangements, defer to acoustic delicacy and revel in
melodic nirvana. When you don't even notice that music has no lyrics, you know
you're spinning an exceptional instrumental album, and Cognition is a perfect
example. Divided into three sections - Rebirth, Soul Discovery and Cognition - the
album seems to follow some sort of concept, perhaps a personal theme that chronicles
Caterine's own life. Just read the liner notes for insight into what may have been
going through the multi-instrumentalist's head when he was laying down tracks with
such titles as "Search for Solace," "Tears," Segue to the Heart," "Enlighten" and
"Shades of Life": "Cognition was recorded in the bedroom, garage, living room &
bathroom of my former home in Las Vegas, NV, and mastered in Phoenix, AZ, between
jobs, bands, paralysis, addictions, nervous breakdowns, car wrecks & major eye
surgery." A bizarre fact related to the above statement: Caterine was involved in
car accident in April 2001. After several surgeries, he remains blind in his left
eye - which is the image on the cover of Cognition. The cover concept and title,
however, were actually conceived almost two years earlier, which further fuels the
argument that Caterine's fluid sense of melody and exceptional flair for aural
details border on the miraculous. Cheers, good fellow. 4-1/2 out of 5 rating.
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