hris Francis has a pretty prestigious background to him. Having graduated the London Musical Institute with a platinum award, he was a finalist in Guitarist Magazine's guitar player of the year contest in 1999, and he won the title in 2000. He's also released an instructional video, four albums with his band TEN, been on countless projects and played from the bars and clubs of London to big stages in Japan. The press for his previous, which is also his debut, album compared him to the likes of Bettencourt, Vai, Satriani and Malmsteen. But it's not in skill here the comparisons are made, it's more along the lines of tone, feel and character.
I think this is either supposed to be a concept album (despite it being instrumental) or one where each song is a distinct scenario or short story that can stand by itself yet is still part of a greater whole. "Pickle and Baby Bear" starts off with a sound byte of a man and woman arguing, going straight into "Studs n' Sisters", an up-tempo Rock song, essentially a throw-back to fun music with a great melodic hook and some swinging riffing. Of course, being an instrumental, the "obvious" songs show up, like the ballad ("Used-To-Be"), mixed out with some heavier stuff ("Death Bitch"), but the theme of writing scenarios predominates in the writing. Instead of getting an album geared more towards guitar players, "Studs n' Sisters" is a lot more accessible because the focus is the little images conjured up in your head when you listen to this.
"Studs n' Sisters" sounds like the instrumental explanation of a movie, with the interaction of characters and the little events in their lives, with the melodies telling the stories. Chris Francis has a knack for writing guitar and bass lines that can conjure up any emotion there is, that stick in your head and then bore themselves in your brain, and then make you reminisce something from ages past (something fun and good, generally lighthearted).
The instrumentation is amazing, and the samples that appear every now and then convey the feeling of the song much better, as in "Used-To-Be", but I have a small problem with this record: Sometimes, the solo in the song goes on for one or two bars too long. I know it's sounding a bit retentative, but cutting a few of the solos (like in "Studs n' Sisters") two seconds short would probably have improved the music ten-fold. Minus those 3 seconds here and there, this record is a very well written foray and an interesting venture into the world of Instrumental guitar music.
Man, my job at Metal Observer has introduced me to many interesting and creative guitar players that are finding new ways to approach Instrumental Metal/Rock, and this is another one of them.
I hope I can hear Chris Francis in a band setting. Any band that can snatch him up will have an amazing asset that has a tremendous feel for his instrument and a great ear for melody.
hris Francis has a pretty prestigious background to him. Having graduated the London Musical Institute with a platinum award, he was a finalist in Guitarist Magazine's guitar player of the year contest in 1999, and he won the title in 2000. He's also released an instructional video, four albums with his band TEN, been on countless projects and played from the bars and clubs of London to big stages in Japan. The press for his previous, which is also his debut, album compared him to the likes of Bettencourt, Vai, Satriani and Malmsteen. But it's not in skill here the comparisons are made, it's more along the lines of tone, feel and character.