Legendary Tosin Abasi Guitar Clinic at Zula Bar – Review
Legendary Tosin Abasi Guitar Clinic at Zula Bar – Review
Tosin Abasi is considered to be one of the world leaders in guitar playing development, both in terms of his technical ability and his range of guitar tones. His playing blends advanced techniques, ranging from intense finger tapping, to poly-rhythms, sweep picked arpeggios, high speed picking and Hybrid picking in a way which is not only articulate and dynamically rich but also unique in terms of his choice of note values. His music can be described as Sci-fi Cinematic-Afro-Metal-Jazz-Electronica-Neo Classical-Funk. Some label it Prog Metal… The music is so laden in an advanced form of the kinds of grooves that B-Boys would Robot, Pop and Lock to, that you might start to see how many music styles are crossing over into each other, more and more, and that it’s a required evolutionary step in human development.
When asked, at the clinic, what gave him the impetus to focus his strengths in those particular directions, he said that his advanced technical development began, when initially listening to bands like Nirvana, he stumbled upon technical geniuses, like Yngwie Malmsteen. This eventually developed into an affinity toward Prog Metal bands like Meshuggah. From there, he started to develop his technique to match his musical ideas. The urge to express the fiery surges of musical energy, eventually became his lauded musical style. Obviously, without his extremely powerful musical ideas, his music might have become pigeon-holed by typical mass media misrepresentation and lost under the banner of unmarketability. His tenure with bands, playing in similar styles, followed by a one year long course at The Atlanta Music Institute, and a strong intellect, make Tosin Abasi and Animals as Leaders much more relevant than the mass media of fashion masquerading as musicality. Fortunately, Ibanez has created a masterpiece instrument and found the right protagonist to convey expression and social conscience, in a way which is useful to real human development. Tosin Abasi is not shallow…
When asked about his American-Nigerian roots, and the effect on his musicality, he said that he was not influenced so much by the music he listened to around his parents, which was more “tropical” to him but that there could be a subliminal or genetic reference.
Ibanez’s Tosin Abasi Signature Series guitar was mind-blowingly rich in tone. He showed us the tone from pickup position to position, and how the instrument goes from sounding like a well balanced neo-classical lead guitar, to grind-core, twang, funk and be-bop, without having to do any pedal switching. Its DiMarzio Ionizer 8™ pickups were designed by Steve Blucher, to Tosin Abasi’s specifications. Steve Blucher is the man who designs pickups for artists like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai.
His sound rig includes a Fractal Audio MFC-101 Midi Foot controller, a Fractal Audio AXE-FX Ultra system, a custom made Boomerang Phrase Sampler, a Furman M-8 Power Conditioner, and a Voodoo Lab Ground Control.
Instead of using an amp onstage, he managed to run his rig directly through the PA system, using amp simulations. The tone was very powerful in harmonics and showed great string to string balance, so that the higher pitched passages were equal in harmonic strength and volume, to the lower pitched ones. The clarity per note was well defined, when he played at great speed, in whichever range. All of this, without losing a well rounded sense of what high gain guitar sounds are famous for: wailing, grinding and having vocal qualities that move human ear-drums in a way that keeps people coming back for more.
Video Clips:
Tosin Abasi playing a teaser of the song Tempting Time…
This clip features an etude he composed to work on a newer technique. He combines sweep picking and hybrid picking for a circular, harp-like effect. Done with the Ibanez Tosin Abasi Signature Guitar, the TAM100.
Tosin Abasi talks about the DiMarzio Ionizer 8™ pickups developed for his new signature 8-string Ibanez guitar.
Animals as Leaders
When Tosin Abasi released his debut solo album under the moniker ANIMALS AS LEADERS in 2009, few would have predicted the band’s meteoric rise over the next two years. Although Abasi earned acclaim as the lead guitarist in the Washington, D.C.-based metalcore act Reflux, it was still a long-shot that an instrumental album of progressive metal with jazz, electronic and ambient flourishes would develop anything more than a cult following.
Fast-forward two-plus years to “Weightless,” the group’s sophomore effort, and ANIMALS AS LEADERS is revered worldwide as a trailblazing pioneer of modern heavy music. The group’s genre-defying compositions have earned extensive praise — Steve Vai called the band “the future of creative, heavy virtuoso guitar playing,” and MetalSucks recently ranked Abasi #2 on their list of modern metal’s top guitarists — and the diversity of their music has enabled them to tour with a wide variety of acts, including Deftones, Underoath, Circa Survive, BTBAM, The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Faceless, Thursday, Dredg and, on the 2010 Summer Slaughter tour, even Decapitated.
Whereas the group’s self-titled debut was a collaboration between Abasi and Periphery’s Misha Mansoor, “Weightless” features the recording debut of ANIMALS AS LEADERS, the true band — that is, Abasi (guitars), Javier Reyes (guitars) and Navene Koperweis (drums). After nearly two years of touring together, the trio wrote and recorded “Weightless” together in mid-2011, with Koperweis producing and Reyes mixing. The group debuted a new track, “Isolated Incidents,” during their inaugural headlining tour this summer, which included sellout shows from coast-to-coast — a sign that as quickly as ANIMALS AS LEADERS have risen, the best is yet to come.
