GARY SCHUTT (J S Soto) – Puppets In Symmetry (2012)
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Jeff Scott Soto’s guitarist GARY SCHUTT has been releasing quality solo material for some time now.
“Puppets In Symmetry” is his tenth album to date and consists of 13 tracks which are radio-edited, re-worked, re-mixed versions of songs from his ‘Excruciating Pleasure’ (2003) and ‘Contingency Plan’ (2010) CD’s plus some extras.
These edits are cut to under 4 minutes and have all the dirty words either taken out or altered. Seems Gary has ‘cleaned’ the best songs of both albums to pump them into the radio.
And indeed are pretty commercial tracks. Gary is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, but all the material here are vocal tracks focused on the ‘song format’.
Schutt goes for a brilliant and crispy sound with punchy, zingy melodies, sharp taut riffs and some buzzing guitars. The stylings ranges from modern rockin’ songs to eighties and nineties influenced melodic rockers.
The tracks chosen from the 2003 period such as “Someone New”, the catchy “Self Destruction” or the intense ballad “Lost Soul Mate” are more melodic, while the most recent material is more modern as the tight “Bitch (with a capital ‘C’)” or the commercial acoustics of “Nowhere Fast”.
As bonus, we have “Die Another Love”, the original Schutt version of the track re-named ‘Afraid To Die’ appeared in Jeff Scott Soto’s recent 2012 album ‘Damage Control’.
“Puppets In Symmetry” is a potent selection of songs, well crafted and cleanly structured, cleverly re-worked for the occasion.
This material is really modern sounding, featuring some truly meaty instrumentation full of energy and upbeat pace for the most part.
Gary Schutt does everything on his own, even the singing and the production (which is first rate), so this CD is all done by one man and I have to say it sounds excellent for what it is: modern melodic rock with some frantic overtones.
Really good and kickin’ stuff.
You’ve seen it first here, at zerodayrockz
01 – Psycho Bitch (radio edit)
02 – Self Destruction (radio edit)
03 – Someone New (radio edit)
04 – Wish You Dead (radio edit)
05 – Therapy (radio edit)
06 – Crave (radio edit)
07 – Lost Soul Mate (radio edit)
08 – Mental Ward (radio edit)
09 – It’s Not Me
10 – Bitch with a capital “C” (radio edit)
11 – Dog (radio edit)
12 – Nowhere Fast (acoustic mix)
13 – Die Another Love [bonus]
Gary Schutt: Vocals, All instruments
BUY IT !
www.amazon.com/Puppets-in-Symmetry/dp/B0082V7FVG
