NO SYNTHESIZERS USED IN THE CREATION OF THIS MUSIC!
The sound of SCP is a reverential nod to many of the Prog Rock giants of the 70s/80s/90s/00s. Heavily influenced by King Crimson, mid-seventies Genesis (Selling England by the Pound era), the Prog titans U.K. (featuring Allan Holdsworth, Bill Bruford, John Wetton and Eddie Jobson), Rush, Tool as well as a healthy dose of Zappa.
All tunes were thematically inspired by Muhammad Ali and his great 1974 fight in Zaire, eliciting titles like Boma Yé (Lingala language for “Kill him!”), SKIP, Sucker Punch’d etc……
Azhar Kamal started the writing process in 2021 when he sat down and wrote the 15-minute suite “Sucker Punch`d” as Opus 1 in Eb, in 5/8 time.
Such a time signature presents a clear scarlet thread running through all the compositions. The songs are in irregular meters to reflect the orderly chaos of the rhythms in nature.
All the music has been performed in the studio and all parts are continuous. There was strictly no copy-and-paste on this record.
Muscular, exciting, challenging and invigorating – that’s what it was like playing this music.
The tunes are a result of the successful writing partnership of John Jones, born in Detroit, USA and Azhar Kamal, born in Karachi, Pakistan. The instrumentation was written first, followed by the text and vocal melodies. Azhar Kamal presented John Jones with tracks and titles, to which Jones crafted corresponding lyrics and vocals.
Azhar composed specifically for the instruments of the band, which is why ALL SOUNDS on this record are created with the guitar, with the exception of the celesta, used to highlight melodies.
Sheer Cerebral Power plays accessible music that is highly original and retains a certain amount of uniqueness due to the stylistic idiosyncrasies of the musicians, which are Tommy Eberhardt (drums), Horst Polland (bass), John Jones (voice) and Azhar Kamal (acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, celeste, percussion and voice).
All solos are dedicated to Allan Holdsworth, whose style is a major influence on and inspiration to Azhar Kamal – second only to John Mclaughlin, who is Azhar’s beacon of inspiration since 1982.
All songs were recorded at Kamal’s very own Big Bong Studios in Munich between June and October 2021. The songs were mixed by Mario Thaler in November 2021 at UPHON Studios in Murnau (The Notwist, Polarkreis 3000, Miles, etc.) and mastered by the acclaimed mastering engineer Guido Hieronymus at Hieronymus Mastering in Berlin in late November 2021.
The music of Sheer Cerebral Power sounds accessibly simple but is quite complex due to irregular meters and structures. It tries to push the boundaries of popular music while shunning self-indulgence. Sheer Cerebral Power makes music that you can listen to repeatedly and always discover something new.