Twenty years after its initial pressing, famed guitar teacher and virtuoso Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien still stands as an album that revitalized instrumental music and made him a household name in rock, one of the best in the business.
More than selling millions of records, it inspired legions of guitarists to follow his path and even made instrumental rock music a genre cool enough to earn Grammy nominations, of which Satriani himself has earned fourteen. This year, the album got the remaster treatment — courtesy of Epic/Legacy Recordings. Along with a bonus DVD featuring a full Satriani concert, the total package stands out as one of the most notable reissues of 2007.
It's easy to forget that SWTA was Satriani's sophomore effort, with 1986's Not Of This Earth being his first foray into the instrumental rock world. It was solid and technically impressive in its own right. But the array of diverse sounds and moods of SWTA's ten tracks, along with Satriani's technically precise playing made this record a masterpiece.
From beautiful emotive love ballads like "Always With Me, Always With You," swinging blues rock boogies like "Satch Boogie," impossibly fast, complex hard rockers and strange or classical-sounding music, it's all there.
Original producer John Cuniberti was chosen by Joe to remaster the album, and there is a noticeable difference in overall sound, not as much in his lead guitar playing as in the backing guitars, drums and other percussive instruments. The sonic textures of the instruments that compliment his guitar work are more crystal clear or explosive-sounding than ever before.
In the liner notes, Satriani gives some valuable insight into both what went into the production of SWTA and his experience playing the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival, the full performance of which is included in the DVD portion of this re-release. Nigel from Spinal Tap tells some pretty amusing stories of his encounters with Satriani on the DVD as well. You also get to see a couple of old videos from this era, including a black-and-white video of "Always With Me, Always With You."
Satriani's versatile technical skills and incredible songwriting abilities are on full display throughout SWTA, as his many adoring fans and musicians already know. But whatever the reason, the audience at the 1988 Montreux Jazz festival gave mostly respectable applause throughout Satriani's SWTA-heavy set most of the time. In fact, as Joe recalls in the album's liner notes, much of the crowd left as soon as his band started playing!
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Article comments
1 - Kevin Eagan
Satriani is a guitar god, and this is his best solo album. Didn't know it had been re-issued, I might have to listen to the original now.
2 - Glen Boyd
Great review Charlie. Satriani is right up there with Jeff Beck as being one of the few rock/jazz players that bring something new to the table within the otherwise somewhat tired format of instrumental electric guitar albums (Al DiMeola would be another).
-Glen
3 - Josh
Well done, Charlie. You and I seem to agree on this one. Classic.