:::::::Artist Profile:::::::
Taka Minamino was born in Osaka, Japan on February 20, 1984. Learning to play the violin at the young age of 4, Taka continued to play until the age of 14 when in high school, he switched to the guitar.
To best develop his skills, Taka took lessons under Kelly Simonz, then after moving to Los Angeles, CA, under Joy Basu (GIT, Hollywood). In 2005, after graduating MI/GIT, he sent a sample of his work to Mike Varney (Shrapnel Records, Owner) who featured him in the Spotlight Column of Guitar Player’s September 2005 issue.
Before 2005 ended, Taka began work on his first recording project, with well-respected musicians Jeff Bowders, drums (Paul Gilbert), Michael T. Ross, keyboards (Hardline) and Kevin Jones, vocals (Rattleface). With the recording process underway, he moved back to Japan the following year where he returned to MI/GIT as a teacher.
An opportunity for worldwide exposure came in 2008 when keyboard virtuoso Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theatre) invited Taka to play on three tracks(Molecular Intro, Molecular Heinosity, The Lone Spaniard) on his upcoming 6th CD, Molecular Heinosity. Taka’s blistering licks gained him additional notoriety and some very well deserved recognition.
In the early part of this year, 2009, Taka began recording his first solo project, AngelWing. Invited guests appearing on AngelWing are; Kevin Jones, Jeff Scott Soto, Derek Sherinian, Rafael Borks, Tony Franklin, Jeff Bowders. .The CD released on November 15, 2009.
:::::::Liner Notes::::::::
Angelwing is the first solo album from Taka Minamino (full artist profile here) and features 8 songs from fretboard workouts (Violence Breeds Violence, Divine Death) to touching power ballads (Forever Love) and intricately-constructed neoclassical pomp (AngelWing, Memories of you) all of which feature Taka’s emotionally-charged and technically immaculate guitar stylings.
Taka has also assembled a team of musicians including those from earlier projects (Tony Franklin and Derek Sherinian from the Molecular Heinosity project) as well as the always-excellent Jeff Scott Soto, Jeff Bowders on drums (Paul Gilbert, David Lee Roth, Michael Angelo) Kevin Jones on vocals, Rafael Borks on keys, and Kelly Simonz on bass. With talent like that providing the backing then quality musicianship is assured and it’s a tribute to Taka (who also engineered, mixed and mastered the CD) that he has produced a well balanced outing sonically. All too often instrumental albums treat the other instruments as an afterthought but each is clearly definied in the overall picture and the overall production is very good as all the instruments share the space equally without vying for attention. Thunderous drums, a solid bass and the wonderfully symphonic keyboards are all present but indeed, what album of this sort would be complete without them.
Have no doubt however as Angelwing is most definitely a guitarist’s album and a neoclassicist’s album at that. From the almost obligatory inroductionary solo (replete with church bells and orchestral support) to the title track itself Taka proves himself to be a very technically able player, with a wide and expressive vibrato and the usual variety of sweep picking, legato and ferocious alternate picking who’s not afraid to prove that he has what it takes to make it in todays discerning market.
On Afterlife in the hell (track 2) he trades some blistering solos with Derek as well as outlining some highly melodic arpeggio sequences, whereas Violence breeds violence (track 3) opens with a salvo of tapping followed by more typically Bach-like chord progressions allowing ample room for more baroque arpeggiation and pivot licks before moving away from the ensemble playing with some blinding picked runs. In fact, the constantly high level of guitar playing is quite relentless and can be a little exhausting to listen to for the simple reason is that Taka really is very fast indeed. Some of his lines bring to mind none other than Malmsteen himself and indeed listening to the gut-wrenching bends on Forever Love (track 4) with Jeff Scott Soto handling vocal duties I can hear a very strong influence which raises the question – can Taka avoid the pitfall of many other neoclassicist’s and move out from Yngwie’s shadow?
Not every track has relentless barrages of notes and the lyrical opening to Memories of you (track 6) has a very strongly melodic and emotional theme. The last track on the album (the very aptly titled Eye of Tranquility) is a delicate acoustic piece over a simple keyboard arrangement and again while there are faster passages this track (and other moments like it) prove that it’s simply very difficult to escape some similarity to Malmsteen when drawing upon a Neoclassical harmonic vocabulary but ultimately we have to remind ourselves that Angelwing is very much a sophomore outing. While the florid scalar and arpeggio passages are reminiscent of others, Taka’s beautiful bends and sense of dynamics give him more of a voice than most of his contemporaries and when instrumental guitar is done this well I can forgive the odd moment of similarity.
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