Customer Reviews

Safe Journey

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a huge fan of other textural guitarists like Bill Frisell, Robert Fripp, Terje Rypdal, Andy Summers, Ben Monder, Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, and David Torn. It was only a matter of time before I started to get into the work of this textural guitar genius. Having said that, "Safe Journey" is a remarkable album that only gets better with repeated listenings.

"Safe Journey" is the precursor to his most aggressive album "Exploded View," but has more of the atmosphere of the album "Northern Song," which was released prior to "Safe Journey." This album goes through so many beautiful moods and textures, it's just amazing to sit back and think what went on in the studio while he was recording it. It has everything that's great about a Steve Tibbetts album on it. It has the beautifully lush chordal work from his 12-string acoustic and 6-string electric guitars, looped rhythmic patterns, soaring distorted phrases, reverb/delay drenched feedback, volume swelled synth chordal backdrops, and top notch percussion.

It obviously has all of the trademarks of a Tibbetts album, but there's something really special going on with this album. It has this underlying dark beauty. It's hard to put my finger on exactly what makes this album standout from the rest, but to these ears he's taken everything he's best at and rolled them into one album. The result is some haunting, brooding, melodic, and surprisingly accessible music.

I think it's very hard to review music of this kind for the simple fact that it can garner so many views and invoke so many different moods. No matter what your temperment may be, you'll enjoy the feeling you get from this album. All of the compositions are beautiful examples what a musician can do with a very simple lineup of instruments.

In response to the negative reviews, I've got one thing to say: are you crazy? One person mentioned this music isn't as good as Michael Brook's, Brian Eno's, etc. The sad thing about that statement is that Steve Tibbetts isn't any of these musicians he mentioned, he's Steve Tibbetts and he shouldn't be classified in the same league as anybody. Nobody makes music like Steve Tibbetts. I can actually say that with confidence. You can hear echoes of alot of different kinds of music in his compositions. Everything from Steve Reich influenced rhythmic loops to the tribal music of Africa to folk to jazz and rock. That is what is great about his music. It can incorporate virtually everything into it.

I think if you are a fan of textural music, then you should really try and obtain a copy of this beautiful album. You will not be sorry.

Wow...going from Tibbett's previous release, Northern Song...to Test, the first cut from Safe Journey, must be what it is like to run from a hot tub and jump into an icy pond. Only you want to replay the experience again and again! This CD is still a frequently played favorite, with many mood shifts, textures and sounds. Just how does he get the guitar to make some of those sounds? High impact, high quality, essential listening for all!

Well, I just listened to "Safe Journey" probably the 10,000th time since being lucky enough to buy it new in '84. To date, it remains my favorite recording within my brief stint on planet earth. I strongly recommend finding a plot of sand/snow covered earth without any human residue and walk/stand/run for 1 hour while this recording does its' thing - the sound and colors of the music will put you damned-near in a state of drooling (and the endorphines will remind you that you still have a brain). - Absolutely stunning work.

Ian Naismith

If our dreams had a soundtrack,THIS would be the album. Safe Journey posseses a liquid moodiness that evokes multiple landscapes; subterranian worlds, oxygenated lush dense tropics, savanah's and mystical temples. This album contains enough rich shifting realities to keep any out of body experience from tailspinning into boredom. This ISN'T New Age music,it's THE secret esoteric audio doctrine!

I've been a sort of John the Baptist to Steve as the musical messiah, yet I'm always at a loss when trying to explain him because popular categories are too confining. I've seen him filed under Jazz, Rock, and Experimental. He is all of these. Let's not forget Marc Andersen who is more of a collaborator than a mere percussionist. Anyway, you want to know if this is good. I think it is one of his best (Exploded View and Northern Song making up the trinity); I've been listening to these for close to fifteen years and I will never tire of them.

I buy far too many CD's looking for something that can fulfill my admittedly somewhat junkielike but jaded need for new music. Most of the time I am disappointed. Somewhere in here I came across Steve Tibbetts. Being a long time Pat Metheny fan, I noted some comparisons being made - which on reflection made little sense other than both play guitar, both have some "world" influences, and both were on ECM.

I was wary that many of the reviews were from old time fans and not new ones since many times we have experiences that color our view that really have little to do with the music other than it was part of the experience.

Well I've bought both this CD and Man About A Horse. Both are very good, but so far this CD is preferred. The first song Test is the real standout among both CD's. It's one of those songs that you'd put on a sampler for friends just to blow them away. Listening to Test with a good headphone system should probably be illegal. There is not a bad cut on the CD, but since Test is the first song the rest have a hard time competing.

The music really is beyond my limited ability to describe, but the combination of percussion and guitar makes it something truly different - and in the hands of Steve and his partner - something worthwhile to have and cherish.

I can't compete with these poets who've written excellent reviews of this album, and any adjective would probably sound cliched, but like at least 2 reviewers before me, this is probably my favorite recording ever. The feelings I get are like no other. It is impossible for me to drive the speed limit when the opening track is on. This guy has something in his soul that no one else has and can not even be compared to anyone or anything else.You hear a completely original musical vocabulary that communicates an energy and life of dark and light, thick and thin, fast and slow, spiritual and organic.Your mind will move from the inner-relatedness of the whole web and then plunge into an inexhaustible variety of pixilated, delicate, tight incidents as you feel the thumping, primal, refined, epic musical nebula to the point that your soul and the artist's soul seem subsumed in these works. How's that for campy pseudo-intellectualizing? Seriously, this is the most fantastic experince in sound I've ever had.

Truly great albums create a universe of their own, and no album does that better than Safe Journey. Safe Journey takes you on a funhouse ride through tortured jungles of feedback and vast echoing tundras of acoustic guitar, ending in a spiritual ascent into the cosmos. ( And, no, I didn't take acid before I wrote this. ) I would recommend this album to anyone with an adventurous pair of ears.

Listening to Steve Tibbetts' music puts you somewhere between 5000 hits of acid and a decade of very intense meditation that might have rev-ved you up or down... but without having the negative side effects of either.

This CD runs the gamut from heavy-metal guitar to "world music," all done flawlessly. "Test" is the most intense tune I have ever heard, and must be listened to with the volume cranked (the audio sample DOES NOT do it justice). Then he lets everything relax for the rest of the album, beautiful, quiet rhythms. His percussionist is a master. Prescription: Listen to this CD late at night, with the lights out, and get transported to another plane of existence.