Joe Satriani's groundbreaking Surfing With the Alien turns 20 this year, and the album is being re-released in an expanded format to mark the occasion.
What's groundbreaking about Surfing With the Alien? Think of it in Christopher Columbus terms. Columbus didn't discover America, if by discover you mean actually arriving here first. He did, however, get here and the arrival started a chain of events that has had a significant historical impact.
Satriani didn't discover a genre nor did he change the course of human history. He did expand the language of rock music's most important instrument – the electric guitar – and took it places it hadn't been. Surfing is also noteworthy because of its surprising commercial success. It reached the Billboard Top 30 and sold more than 2 million copies. That's modest success for pop stars but those are staggering numbers for a guitar-based instrumental record. That success allowed him to stay at a major label throughout his career and opened the door for a slew of peers and imitators.
The expanded edition features a CD containing the re-mastered album, a bonus DVD, and expanded liner notes from Satriani himself. The occasion is special and so is the album, so one would expect the same from this Legacy Edition. Does it meet those expectations?
The Album
This edition is its third sonic incarnation of Surfing. The album was originally mastered by Bernie Grundman and released in 1987 by Relativity Records. In the late '90s, George Marino re-mastered the album. The Legacy Edition was again re-mastered, this time by John Cuniberti. Cuniberti co-produced the album when it was originally recorded. Bringing him in to oversee the re-mastering process is an inspired and appropriate choice, one more example of the love and care that went in to producing the ultimate version of this classic album.
So, what does all that mean?
After an album is recorded and mixed, it is sent off to be mastered where a bevy of sonic adjustments can be made. This post-production process creates a single source from which all copies of an album will be produced and represents the last best opportunity to make the music sound great.
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Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
need to get my hands on this.
2 - Mark Saleski
me too! i might even walk into one of those gawd-awful fye places tomorrow.
it's all your fault hathaway!!!
3 - Glen Boyd
Not a huge fan here (he was always a little too flashy for me -- I was always more of a Jeff Beck guy when it comes to this type of stuff). But this sounds like the one to get. No FYE for me though (throwing up the sign of the cross there).
-Glen
4 - Mark Saleski
i keep tellin' josh that he needs to hear both Wired and the more recent Guitar Shop
5 - Josh
Mark, order it from Amazon. Stay away from the box stores! My life is at least 20% better since I stopped shopping at freakin' Best Buy.
Glen, this is the version of the album to get and for my money it's still Joe's best album. There are many, many great songs to be found on his other records but this is truly an album, and a special one at that.
For the record, I'm not anti-Beck. Satriani is flashy and plays a lot of notes but does so in a melodic manner and in the context of an actual song.
6 - Mark Saleski
i've never actually set foot in an fye...but there happens to be one up the street from where i work.
of course, i usually go to my local independent cd shop.
7 - Tom Johnson
Very excited to get my hands on this one. Hopefully UPS will actually get my address right* this week and it'll be on my doorstep when I get home.
I was going to do my usual weekly writeup in the Breakdown about this one (and only this release) but I'm running late and your review is so thorough and good I don't know that there's much need. You were too fast and too awesome, Josh.
*The post office recently changed our zip code and UPS doesn't like it. One would think they'd update their zip code list regularly and frequently but apparently not.
8 - John C Comedy
Thanks for the review Josh! I'm definitely ordering it. He turned out a great guitarist in Kirk Hammett as well :)