TEE "The Earth Explorer"

TEE is a five piece flute front progressive rock band from Tokyo, Japan. Their so-called 'European' sound is unique considering their far-east origin. The imaginative tunes with complex ensembles and rhythms will definitely catch the attention of prog lovers all over the world. Their sound will remind you bands like Camel, King Crimson, Asia Minor or even Frank Zappa on some parts. The band was formed in 2004 when... more

Kevin BARTLETT

You may not know his name but you have definitely heard his music more than once or twice in your life. Maybe on HBO, or on MTV, or on VH1, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel. Doesn't ring the bell? How about American Idol Rewind, or Dr. 90210? We had interviewed Kevin Bartlett a couple of years ago when his second solo album GLOW IN THE DARK was released. Bartlett has been quiet since that time but but he has been secretly brewing new projects. A few months ago he had put a new song...more

Peter Hammill, founding member of Van Der Graaf Generator, released his 28th solo album " nearly 3 months ago. He recently got back home from a short tour covering North America, Canada and Italy. In the 70's when bands like...more

FRIGHT PIG Barque At The Lune *** REVERSAL OF GRAVITY Scuba Gear ***

RICHIE NIETO

Richie Nieto brings about a refreshing change in the industry with his own brand of progressive music. Using the Chapman stick to mix rock, metal and experimental in the pot that is his creative mind.

Nieto, a Costa Rican native musician, has been in the active music scene for over 20 years. He worked on projects in different genres including progressive and experimental, both as a solo artist and in established groups. He toured in Central and North America opening up for artists like Sting, Jethro Tull and Yes’ Jon Anderson. "Giant Robots and Sunsets" is Richie's first solo album. He not only wrote the songs and played almost all the instruments on the album, he also worked on the programming, production and engineering levels.

Richie's music can be described as King Crimson meets Rush and Trey Gunn, but don't let this description mislead you, because Richie has his own style all by himself. Mostly on the experimental side, his music has elements of progressive music too. Songs like "Caffeine" and "Down The Rabbit Hole" reflect a good mixture of both genres. Caffeine's bass lines were played on both bass and Chapman stick, it includes a stick and a metal guitar solo. Down The Rabbit Hole takes his title from Alice In Wonderland as it is a "song within a song".

"The Hill Of Holes" is one the best songs on Richie's album. This song was remixed and produced by Lee Fletcher (halo), but not only that, Warr guitar was played by Markus Reuter (Tuner / Centrozoon). How he got to meet these musicicans is a 21st century tale. He and Lee started exchanging messages on myspace making comments about each other's work. They developped a friendship in time and one day Lee asked him if he could rework on one of Richie's tracks. "Low To Ground" that is. In return, Richie programmed drums on three of the halo's tracks. He met Markus while working on Tuner’s ’11 versions of 11-11’, which was an experiment to display different drum arrangements by different producers and drummers for one of their tracks. They exchanged emails and that is how they began working on "The Hill Of Holes".

On top of everything, Richie plays one of the most interesting instruments: Chapman Stick (aka The Stick). He first was blown away by the Stick in 1989, when he saw a video of Tony Levin playing it with King Crimson. Richie was a guitarist at the time, and having a Stick seemed like a distant dream. Then in 2000 he moved to Los Angeles, and it turned out that he was living about 15 minutes away from Chapman’s workshop. He drove there and ordered one, which took around six months to be built. He says when he first got it, it felt very alien and weird. But after practicing for a few months, it began to feel more natural, and now he finds it more satisfying to play than the guitar, which he has played for more than 20 years. He also says seeing Trey Gunn play live a couple of times, and listening to his CD's really helped him understand this instrument which looks quite intricate.

For those who are not familiar with the way the Stick sounds, we can only try to describe it like this: sounds like guitar and bass at the same time, but also in times feels like keyboards. Basically one hand plays the bass lines while the other plays the guitar lines. It is sort of similar to playing piano.

We asked Richie how and when he started working on his solo project. He said he started writing and recording the first track for the album in early 2002. The entire album, except for "The Hill Of Holes", was recorded in his home studio on evenings and weekends. The recording equipment was very minimal at first, and he had only been playing the Chapman Stick for about six months, so as the setup grew and he got more confident in his playing, the writing started to evolve and get more complicated as well. "Low To Ground" was the first track to be written, which has been since re-recorded to get a better sound, and he added a Stick solo. The last tune written was "Caffeine", which is sonically very complex and combines almost every tool at his disposal – Stick, different guitars, electric bass, synths, drum and percussion samplers and sound effects. About him playing almost all the instruments on the album himself, Richie says this was done intentionally as an experiment, to see how far he could push himself musically and mentally.

Richie is also a member of the band called Neurotica. This project sounds different than his solo work as it is more on the progressive / new wave side. Neurotica have recently released a self titled album. Here are the links for you to find more information about Richie Nieto's projects and how to purchase them. We also included a short sample of the track "Low To Ground" for you to get an idea about his music.