After being refined by the fires of Ax Inferno and returning from his Sonoran Odyssey of the American Southwest, guitarist Paul Speer launches into the stratosphere with Adventures in Space, one of his finest solo albums and one of the very best electric guitar recordings out there. And I really mean “out there” in every sense of the expression.
While the album and all the songs have space-based and space-inspired names, the music is actually down to Earth and very accessible. This is not typical “space music” at all – it is pure, unadulterated electric guitar, with the high-tech gloss of the space age.
The seven organic compositions contained within are driven by Speer’s blazing guitar, thunderous bass, and scintillating synthesizers and Gregg Bissonette’s pulse-pounding drums. Speer’s former musical collaborator David Lanz contributes graceful piano work on “Spacewalk Europa,” and Ron Krasinski provides kinetic drumming on “Black Hole Dance Party.”
The most affecting and impactful tune on the album is the beautifully poignant and solemn “Memories of Earth,” which is also one of Speer’s best compositions. It functions as both a futuristic nostalgic reminiscence of our home planet long after the human race has relocated to a more viable world and a present-day exhortation for us to make sure that our precious Earth doesn’t become a memory anytime soon.
The whole album is hypnotic and mesmerizing from beginning to end and a fantastic showcase for Speer’s versatile mastery of the electric guitar and his brilliance as a composer.
Adventures in Space is further proof that Paul Speer – one of the few remaining true guitar heroes of the Boomer generation along with Andy Summers, Pat Metheny, and Eric Johnson – is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
--Raj Manoharan