Rock Doctor Music Reviews – TIM BASTMEYER PROJECT Tim Bastmeyer (Grassfire)

This, by my count, is Tim Bastmeyer’s 4^th album, including the one he did with Jerome Tucker- at least that’s what I have on my CD shelves as I wait for his new record to arrive this fall.  While Tim is known for playing some vrai tasty blues, this is a rock instrumental set, further cementing his rep as one of Canada’s premiere guitarists.Bastmeyer has worked with a long list of major artists on and off stage, producing and engineering, and he also runs his own studio and music school in Uxbridge, Ontario- all of which is to say music is this guy’s life.  It shows in the sound and grooves of these 8 tracks; he opens with the eastern flavored Dreams of The East before moving on to a metallic Sabbath feel on Grinder and the elastic funk of I Said Pardon- and that’s just the first three songs!Bastmeyer keeps things moving, which makes TBP fun to listen to.  It reminds me of Joe Satriani’s latest disc Supernova in that it focuses on moods and grooves, his playing giving each song exactly what it needs as opposed to that “weedly-weedly look how fast I can play” stuff that instrumental guitar records can sometimes be guilty of.  If I was still writing and producing radio shows, I’d definitely poach a couple of these tracks to use as theme songs. Guitar is center stage here, but the synth used on Rabbit sounds old fashioned, even dated- but really friggin’ cool.As much as I enjoy Tim Bastmeyer Project, when it comes to rock & roll I prefer the vocal stuff.  The playing on this disc is pretty enjoyable, even though the drums sound programmed for the most part- a definite thumbs up here.ESSENTIALS:  Rabbit, Grinder, Dreams of The East