From the avant-prog-klezmer- jazz opener “Sonic Riot at the Holy Palate” to the similarly themed horn arrangement that ends the otherwise modal jazz drone of “The Unbelievable Truth - Part II,” the third release from Belgium’s TWO is brimming with artful compositions and quirky guitar work. Originally a Zappa tribute band, guitarist Michel Delville and his colorful cohorts have pushed the quintet’s music far beyond homage status, into an oeuvre combining structural complexity with emotional authenticity, much as their mentor’s music did. The super-flanged atmospherics on “Acquiring the Taste,” the anarchic wah work on “Malign Siesta,” the choppy rhythm madness on “Strangler Fig,” and the manic soloing on the aforementioned album closer are just a few of the many guitar highlights scattered throughout the disc.
—Barry Cleveland

Tribute albums rarely rate much wow factor, but this one is interesting in that along with a bunch of modern players doing instrumental versions of classic ’Zep tunes (including Chris Mahoney, Randy Coven, Doug Doppler, Leslie West, Greg Rapaport, and Brian Tarquin) it features several bonus tracks from 1970 that feature Jimmy Page and John Bonham backing the notorious English rock singer David “Screaming Lord” Sutch. On three tunes lifted from the ’70 release Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends (which was produced by JP), Page pulls no punches as he riffs with pretty much the same mix of intensity and trippiness as he was doing with his own band at the time. Why Page wanted to work with such a grating singer as Sutch is a mystery—Jeff Beck, Noel Redding, and pianist Nicky Hopkins also performed on his Lordship’s record and apparently regretted it. A fourth R&B-flavored track from 1968 called “Burn Up” features Page, John Paul Jones, and Hopkins in league with Keith de Groot on vocals, Clem Cattini on drums, and Chris Hughes on tenor sax. You have to take this old stuff for what it is (and Led Zeppelin it ain’t), but it’s fun to hear nevertheless.
—Art Thompson

As players as varied as Adrian Legg and Eric Johnson have proven with brilliant solo pieces, DADGAD tuning sounds quite amazing on steel-string acoustic. And, as Jimmy Page proved so effectively with Led Zep’s “Kashmir,” the tuning also produces spectacular timbres on electric guitar. In fact, DADGAD’s hypnotic, tonally ambiguous sus4 drone works so well in both major and minor tonalities, it’s a wonder more guitarists don’t experiment with it. Usually, the reason people avoid this and other cool open tunings is simple fear. Many players are afraid that rearranging the intervals between the strings will effectively knock their technique back to square one by rendering many of their go-to fingerings null and void. Not so.

The truth is, as Laurence Juber so eloquently shares in this video, DADGAD actually makes many melodic approaches easier.

How? As the guitarist/producer/ McCartney sideman reveals with “Amazing Grace,” “Greensleeves,” and his succinct introduction, the beauty of DADGAD is that it allows adjacent scale tones—the primary ingredient in most great melodies—to be placed on separate strings. Want your melody to have a gorgeous harp-like chime? Take it from Juber: Try it in DADGAD.
—Jude Gold