Music: Polyphia (actually Tim Henson)
As a lifelong player (not a great player tho) I am always on the lookout for something that really drops my jaw. Tim Henson has it in spades.
About a year ago, I began seeing many of the guitar players I follow on Youtube buy this weird Ibanez electric-acoustic guitar that was weird. It was a nylon stringed guitar but it has no resonating cavity (aka the “acoustic” part of the guitar) instead relying on piezo-electric1 pickups to pick up the vibrations of the strings, that feeds an amplifier.
Looked weird to me, and not really my jam, but whatever.
The unifying thread behind this was the rise of a new(ish) player, Tim Henson. I paid it little attention, because many of these guitar players showing off their new toy was sorta boring.
Then I stumbled upon Tim Henson a few weeks ago, and holy fucking shit, this is just amazing.
Why is it amazing? It is a percussive, flowing technique that looks super busy (and it is) but instead of being just a bajillion notes, it is just multiple inter-twining harmonies that are audible bliss.
Watching Tim play is akin to watching a master poet work their craft, knowing that you can’t see what they are thinking, but that you are able to bask in the end result.
And the end result is just amazing. Watch it for yourself!
Sidebar: I have no ink, but I am told that it can be very painful, and that sleeve, and neck work must have required an amount of pain that is unfathomable.
For those who care, here is the “Official” Polyphia video of the track, so you can hear it as on the album. Yes, it is sick AF.
piezo electrics are crystals that when a force on them changes they generate a tiny electric current. They are simple devices and are used to generate noise (if you apply a sinusoidal current to them, they expand and contract. Do it at frequencies that are in the audible range - 50Hz - 20KHz - and you can hear it. Pretty cool stuff!
