|
 TeleVoid
(New Artwork!)
(1998) Rockenfield/Speer
“Our
first project together, the musical inspiration came from computer
animation created by talented artists from all over the world. Mike
Boydstun edited those images into intense visual experiences for
us to compose to.”
Available on CD ($9.99) or DVD ($12.99)
(DVD's are NTSC format and have no region coding.)
 :
CD
($9.99) |
DVD
($12.99)
(click
on track titles below for audio samples)
1 -
Murder
or Self Defense - - - -
 Windows
Video
Quicktime Video
2 - Mind
Suck-
- - - - - - - - -
Windows Video
Quicktime Video
3 - Babies
and Bones
4 - Hi
Strung-
- - - - - - - - -
Windows Video
Quicktime Video
5 - Voodoo
Tango
6 - Telespy
7 - Pyramid
Passage
8 - Witch
Hunt
9 - Chasing
Blue Sky
10- Star
Seed
This highly acclaimed first outing from Rockenfield/Speer is a computer
animation thrill ride that received a Grammy nomination in 1998
for Long Form Music Video.
The soundtrack punches each scene with a vengeance. It was directed
and edited by Michael Boydstun, who also did the Mind's Eye series
of music videos.
***** (5 stars) customer rating at Amazon.com
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 Hells
Canyon
(2000)
Rockenfield/Speer
Hells Canyon (Euro)
unavailable at
this time
“Having
grown up in Idaho near Hells Canyon, this was a natural as a theme
for our second album. The musical ideas and song titles poured out
once we discovered it.”
Available
on CD (NEW PRICE: $5.99)
1 -
Descent
2 - Seven
Devils
3 - Chant
of the Fathers
4 - Snake
Dance
5 - Crossing
to Freedom
6 - Coyote
7 - Red
Torrent
8 - River
of No Return
9 - China's
Last Stand
10- Buffalo
Eddy
11- Carved
in Stone
12- Epilogue
(Euro Release only)
This progressive instrumental rock opus is a musical impression
of places and historical events in the deepest gorge in North America,
Hells Canyon. From the hard hitting fusion rock of "Seven Devils"
to the melancholy strains of "China's Last Stand", which
echo the tragic massacre at Deep Creek, Scott and Paul take you
on a sonic journey through a powerful creation of nature.
Quotes
from European reviewers:
Background
(Holland), 4.5 / 5
The music combines elements of virtuoso guitar oriented hard rock,
ambient music and progressive rock with a slight dose of fusion
added with fantastic and sometimes hypnotic rhythmic patterns. This
is one of the best instrumental albums of the year!
Aardschok
(Holland), 85 / 100
My advice: turn your volume knob close to the very pain threshold
and saturate yourself from top to toe with this sinister and fascinating
music.
Rockreunion.com
(Germany), 9 / 10
Hells Canyon is one hell of a great instrumental progressive rock
album. Really impressive!
Progwereld.org (Holland )
The best instrumental album in it's genre I've ever heard.
Metal
Hammer (Hungary), 10 / 10
The best instrumental album of the last decade!
Aloha
( Holland), 4 / 5
There's blues, there's ambient, there's pure rock, linked with the
endless colorfield of the magical Hells Canyon. Delicious and professional!
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Reviewed
by: Stephanie Sollow (ProgressiveWorld.net)
Hells Canyon is the "deepest gorge in North America,"
but it is also a very deep and sonically rich album by the duo of
Rockenfield/Speer, who collaborated together previously on the Unipix/Miramar
video album/CD TeleVoid in 1998 (which received a Grammy nomination).
The album begins with a thunderstorm as we enter the gorge, and
then we're zipping our way along, the walls towering above us. Each
track stands out and if the liner notes are any indication, a lot
of thought went into these compositions as they are truly evocative
of the scenery and mood they are trying to create. That alone makes
this a successful album. Add in great performances and stellar production
and you have album sure to top many top ten lists.
Rockenfield and Speer are Scott Rockenfield (Queensryche) on drums,
percussion and keyboards and Paul Speer on guitar, bass guitar,
and keyboards. And what a fine duo they make. Hells Canyon is a
meaty release. There's so much I love about this album that I'm
not sure where to start. I love Speer's searing leads that punctuate
some of the tracks, shimmering guitar paints others, and Rockenfield
keeps things pulsating with his drum attack. I especially love the
sinewy guitar lines of "Snake Dance" which shimmer like
water gently disturbed. The descriptive blurb that accompanies this
track (written by Speer) states: "The Snake River slithers
and writhes in the bottom of the canyon, the master of its serpentine
domain. But after leaving the canyon sanctuary, the liquid reptile
makes its way west to be swallowed whole by the Columbia River."
The tattoo that Rockenfield plays only re-enforces this liquid migration.
There is a guitar phrase here that made me think of The Church's
"Reptile" (in that one, it's the opening refrain).
Speer provides historical commentary to accompany the music. In
"Crossing To Freedom" it is the Nee-Me-Poo (Nez Perce)
and the White Bird massacre that are told in music.
In "Coyote" there are moments here that are chillingly
eerie...evoking a crisp, cold, and silent night where the only sound
is that made by the howl of a coyote. Underscoring this is some
percussion, keeping the pulse going. In Nee-Me-Poo legend, it is
Coyote who is said to have dug the canyon for the tribe. Pulsating
is the best word to describe this track, as there is a bass-like
tone, but I think it's keys rather than an actual bass. Perhaps
both. Another great guitar phrase from Speer, with whom I was already
familiar with prior to receiving this release (I rank him among
my guitar heroes, too). Speer is an award-winning producer and will
probably win another one with album.
Each track is engaging, intriguing and worthy of a closer examination
in their own right. "Red Torrent" churns like rapids,
"River Of No Return" tumbles along, churning as well,
as you are swept away by the current, the canyon walls whipping
by, outcroppings narrowly missed. I can see some film producer co-opting
this for footage of folks "shooting the rapids." These
two are companion pieces, the latter of the two using The Salmon
River, which flows into the Snake river "just below Hells Canyon,"
as it's associated imagery. Of it, Speer says it is "the longest
untamed river in the continental United States [...] it is wild
beyond imagination. If you choose to go down, you will not return."
Speer had visited Hells Canyon in his youth and this provided the
inspiration for this work.
I've leave the rest for you discover - and discover you should,
as this is a terrific release.
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