Kung Fu: Caught Up
Kung Fu is back with another track in their Ninja Cuts series. “Caught Up” is a track written by keyboardist Beau Sasser. “Caught Up is about your typical bad day,” he writes. “I was inspired by the movie ‘The Fifth Element,’ where the main character continually gets caught up in the drama of everyone he encounters…something we can all relate...
Tower of Power Celebrate 50 Years with “Soul Side of Town”
Who knew you could be so funky for so long? Tower of Power is celebrating 50 years of making music in 2018 with a new album called Soul Side of Town. While the band’s lineup has changed up through the years, the album includes original saxophonists Emilio Castillo and Stephen “Doc” Kupka as well as the epic rhythm section of...
Electro-Harmonix Introduces the Oceans 11 Reverb Pedal
Electro-Harmonix has unveiled the Oceans 11, a pedal that packs in eleven reverb styles into one stompbox. Its effects are described as ranging from essential to exotic. The reverbs include hall, spring, plate, reverse, echo, tremolo, modulated, dynamic, auto-infinite, shimmer, and polyphonic styles. A mode button allows for switching between three variations of many of the reverbs for further functionality,...
Bass of the Week: Padalka Guitars Neptune Bass No. 125
Padalka Guitars went for something a little different on this particular build of their Neptune bass. To begin, they made it a four-string with a longer 35-inch scale and 26 frets. As with the standard Neptune model, it features a Hipshot headless tuning system. Padalka crafted the bass with a one-piece Black Limba body topped with a stunning piece of...
Alkaloid Returns with “Liquid Anatomy”
Alkaloid has returned with their sophomore album, entitled Liquid Anatomy. The extreme prog metal band features a killer lineup including former Obscura members Hannes Grossmann and Christian Münzner as well as current Obscura bassist Linus Klausenitzer. Former Aborted guitarist Danny Tunker and Dark Fortress vocalist Morean fill things out. Though he’s known for his killer six-string fretless work, Klausenitzer used...
Havok Announces North American Tour Dates
Havok is hitting the road to continue supporting their latest album, Conformicide. Anchored by beastly bassist Nick Schiendzielos, the band will take over North America starting with a handful of dates in Mexico before heading to the U.S. and Canada through July and August. Check out the bassist’s aggressive style in the video for “Intention to Deceive”: was released in...
MOD Devices Introduces MOD Footswitch
MOD Devices has expanded their product lineup with the MOD Footswitch, an external controller complete with four footswitches and two LCD screens. The unit is the first device to use the Control Chain open standard developed by the company. “Unlike MIDI, Control Chain assignments and messages contain the full information about the parameter being assigned, such as parameter name, absolute...
Marcus Miller Returns with “Laid Black”
After exploring his musical roots on his 2015 album, Afrodeezia, Marcus Miller has brought things up to date on his new album Laid Black. His iconic bass lines tie a mix of current styles together with killer instrumental melodies. “‘Afrodeezia’ was like a musical voyage through my history. I followed the journey of my ancestors by collaborating with musicians along...
Chowny Bass Unveils the Bass-Mosphere Chorus/Reverb Pedal
Chowny Bass has expanded their offering of effects with the Bass-Mosphere, a pedal that combines chorus and reverb into a bass-centric unit. Its controls include chorus rate and depth knobs, a knob for setting the reverb volume, and a level control for blending in your wet signal. The pedal also features true bypass and comes in a small form factor....
Cliff Burton Documentary: The Salvation Kingdom
The late, great Cliff Burton is the subject of a new documentary called The Salvation Kingdom. The 93-minute video is an intimate look at Burton as a person largely based on interviews with his sister, Connie. It covers the bassist’s childhood, his hobbies, his practicing, his beliefs, and more. “He would go into a state of mind and of spirit...
Gorillaz Head Out On 2018 World Tour
The Gorillaz are back on the road in preparation for their new album, The Now Now, which drops later this month. The animated band will have a new bassist, the band revealed, as Murdoc Niccals is in jail. In his place will be Ace from the cartoon The Powerpuff Girls. Providing the real bass on tour will, of course, be...
Diluvium: An Interview with Linus Klausenitzer
For some of us bassists, adding a fifth string is a stumbling block. That’s why it’s jaw-dropping to see and hear someone like Linus Klausenitzer, who tackles the insane music in Obscura with a six-string fretless. The German technical death metal band is not the kind of group that rests on their musical laurels, and the bassist wouldn’t have it...