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Nicky Baldrian
AOR
Dream Zones Reviewing Label: Independent
Today is January 2nd, and Mario Passi's CD's arrived today, thus making his music my first CD's of 2003. Passi is from the US and each of the three CD's he has put together are all mini albums featuring 6-8 songs on each disc which has been self produced. His influences are drawn from bands like AC/DC and Rush, but his music is softer and more pop orientated than those bands. The first CD called "Rise Above" issued in 2000 shows Mario testing the waters. The first song 'Rise Above' is catchy acoustic rock with a nice chorus, "Roller Coaster" is where the Rush tones can be heard, especially with the vocals, this song could have been on say "Presto" or maybe even an Elvis Costello album, again it's catchy and the guitar work flows well with the song.
Mario's next release was "The Flow" released in 2001. Whilst the first song 'I Will' again sounds modern, it actually sounds better than the songs on "Rise Above". To me it feels a little darker and fresher, maybe the production sound is different but it does make the song sound allot easier to digest, thus 'I Will' is a groovy modern number with some technical guitar licks flowing through. It seems to me as if Mario is going in the right direction and experimenting a little bit with his songs and his work rate is nothing to moan about either (hello Phil Vincent)... "The Flow" is better than "Rise Above"
"Starwheel" is Mario's latest release and is much better than his first two CD's. The songs are in the same directions as the first two CD's but the production is much better and the songs are catchier and flow easier on the ears, like the first song 'Everything New' which is really catchy, and so is the fun and catchy 'Rock & Roll Job", which is one of Mario's best songs. 'Invisible Force' is also good but with modern influences whilst 'The Next Life' really had me flipping, this is his BEST song and it's totally catchy and very much like Bryan Adams. 'Starwheel' is also brilliant and again like Bryan Adams and maybe early Honeymoon Suite and some Rush, it's this style that captures Mario at his best and area he should concentrate and develop as he does have a gift in the songwriting department, I'm beginning to o wonder how he would work in a full band situation. 'Wasting Energy' is another song with modern grooves and lastly 'Pull The Sun' has Joe Satriani style guitar reminding me of Satch's number "Day At The Beach" from "Flying In A Blue Dream", the song is more in tune with modern influences though and is ok.
So I'm left scratching my head, but the feeling I get is that Mario is trying to appeal a number of genres of hard rock to see which one sticks, for me it's songs like 'The Next Life' and 'Starwheel' that show Mario's real potential and like I said an area he should develop next time around, I think he has it in him to make an album that is in the vein of Bryan Adams' "Reckless" classic, time will tell. -Nicky Baldrian |
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