he world is inundated with music, and with the Internet and ease of recording at home, this is not necessarily a good thing. Weeding through stacks of music, whether self-produced or from a label, it sometimes becomes an arduous task finding that diamond in the ruff. So when you find it, you find the journey well worth it.
Healed Through Time features 10 instrumental tracks that are distinctly reminiscent of works done by Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Ty Oliver spent two years writing and recording this CD, and delivers a uniquely fresh and expressive body of work that gambles on emotion and feeling and not on today's musical trends.
Using his fret work to unveil his feelings, Ty Oliver's guitar work demonstrates his powerful use of expressionism through musical notes. His style is best described as fluid and flowing with plenty of legato phrasing that runs the gambit from bends, hammer on and pull offs to tapping. Tossed in for good measure are the energetic rhythmic joy rides that are as free flowing as the solos and provide the musical bed for the thematic lead guitar work.
It is hard to describe the art of a good guitar solo. Most of the time, the guitar solo is a 10 to 20 second interlude in a song that can become a timeless stamp that identifies a feeling of reference for that particular song. So one can imagine the complexity of writing 4 to 5 minute songs that features the guitar as a solo instrument carrying the weight of the melody on its shoulders. A guitarist can succeed or fail at the drop of a hat.
At the end of the day, Ty Oliver makes his guitar sing. His use of melodic passages and speedy phrasing is brilliant. It is hard to believe this is an independent release without the backing of a label. The production is stellar and the musicians who worked with Ty also did a really great job.
Rating 8/10.
he world is inundated with music, and with the Internet and ease of recording at home, this is not necessarily a good thing. Weeding through stacks of music, whether self-produced or from a label, it sometimes becomes an arduous task finding that diamond in the ruff. So when you find it, you find the journey well worth it.