Mark Varney Project (MVP) was a short-lived collaborative project put together by Mark Varney, brother of

Shrapnel Records Shrapnel Records is an American record label group founded by record producer Mike Varney. The group principally uses the ''Shrapnel Records'' record label, a guitar-oriented label which features shred guitar, hard rock, metal and progressive ...

founder

Mike Varney Michael Varney (born 1958) is an American record producer and music publisher. He is the founder of the Shrapnel Label Group, which includes Shrapnel Records, Tone Center Records, and Blues Bureau International. He also owns 50% of Magna Car ...

''Truth in Shredding''

''Truth in Shredding'' is the first studio album by the Mark Varney Project (MVP), released in 1990 through Legato RecordsTaylor, Robert
"Truth in Shredding – Allan Holdsworth / Frank Gambale / MVP / Mark Varney Project"

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

RhythmOne RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the Alternative Investment Market, ...

. Retrieved 9 April 2020. and reissued on 4 November 2003, through

Tone Center Records Tone may refer to: Visual arts and color-related * Tone (color theory), a mix of tint and shade, in painting and color theory * Tone (color), the lightness or brightness (as well as darkness) of a color * Toning (coin), color change in coins * ...

. Mark founded Legato in the 1980s, which served as a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

-oriented counterpart to the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

stylings of Shrapnel. This line-up of the group features guitarists

Frank Gambale Frank Gambale ( ; born 22 December 1958) is an Australian jazz fusion guitarist. He has released twenty albums over a period of three decades, and is known for his use of the sweep picking and economy picking techniques. Recording career Sol ...

and

Allan Holdsworth Allan Holdsworth (6 August 1946 – 15 April 2017) was a British jazz and rock music, rock guitarist, violinist and composer. He contributed to numerous bands, including Soft Machine, U.K. (band), U.K., The Tony Williams Lifetime, Pierre Moerl ...

. Besides one track written by Gambale, the rest are

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of c ...

s of existing jazz fusion compositions.

Critical reception

Robert Taylor at

awarded ''Truth in Shredding'' four stars out of five, calling it "a very intense fusion recording that can be an intimidating listen both in terms of technique and the consistent intensity maintained throughout." He recommended it for fans of

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

, progressive and heavy metal, and particularly for younger fans of guitar music, saying they "will appreciate the extended solos and lack of any commercial hooks here." While highlighting Gambale and Holdsworth's outstanding playing abilities, Taylor noted that they "quickly run out of ideas and continuously revert back to familiar territory". Tom Brechtlein's drumming was praised as a "fine performance".

Track listing

Personnel

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

, mixing,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

– guitar,

SynthAxe The SynthAxe is a fretted, guitar-like MIDI controller, created by Bill Aitken, Mike Dixon, and Tony Sedivy and manufactured in England in 1985. It is a musical instrument that uses electronic synthesizers to produce sound and is controlled throu ...

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...

engineering *

Freddie Ravel Freddie Ravel is an American keyboardist, keynote speaker, author, composer and recording artist. He served as the musical director of the band Earth, Wind & Fire. Ravel's also worked with the likes of Sergio Mendes, Carlos Santana, Madonna and ...

–

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Mus ...

*Tom Brechtlein –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

Jimmy Earl James Christopher Earl (born 1957) is an American jazz bass guitarist who is a member of the ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' band. Early life and education In 1957, James Christopher Earl was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to James and Sylvia Earl. He i ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

Steve Tavaglione Steve "Tav" Tavaglione (born December 1, 1950) is an American woodwind and EWI musician. He is best known for his work as a co-founder of the Latin fusion group Caldera with Jorge Strunz and Eduardo del Barrio, his work with Michael Jackson, Whi ...

–

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

, EWI *Robert M. Biles – engineering *Mark Varney – executive production

''Centrifugal Funk''

''Centrifugal Funk'' is the second and final studio album by the Mark Varney Project (MVP), released in 1991 through Legato Records; a

remaster A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...

ed edition was reissued in 2004 through

.Taylor, Robert
"Centrifugal Funk – MVP"

All Media Network RhythmOne , a subsidiary of Nexxen, is an American digital advertising technology company that owns and operates the web properties AllMusic, AllMovie, and SideReel. Blinkx was founded in 2004, went public on the AIM market of the London St ...

. Retrieved 2015-07-08. This line-up of the group features guitarists

Brett Garsed Brett Edward Garsed (born 20 April 1963) is an Australian guitarist, best known for his work as a guitarist with John Farnham and T. J. Helmerich, as well as being a former member of the rock band Nelson. He was featured on Derek Sherinian' ...

and

Shawn Lane Shawn Lane (March 21, 1963 – September 26, 2003) was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reg ...

.Monk, Laurie (13 June 2010)
"Mark Varney: Legato interview with Laurie Monk"
Truth in Shredding. Retrieved 2015-07-08. The album consists primarily of covers of existing jazz fusion compositions, save for one track performed by Lane—"Lane's Blitz"—which he later dismissed as an impromptu warm-up rather than a planned solo, and thus his dislike for it.Hallebeek, Richard (March–April 2001)
"Shawn Lane + lesson"
. richardhallebeek.com. Retrieved 2015-07-08. Varney has disputed Lane's version of events, but the track was omitted on the remaster. The cover art on the original release features a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer to listeners: "Warning: Contains guitar performances of unparalleled speed, taste and virtuosity. Not for the faint of heart!", while the back cover has an invitation from Varney asking fans to send in demo tapes of potential guitarists for his label, in return for a named mention within the credits on a future album, as well as five Legato releases mailed to them for free.

Critical reception

Robert Taylor at

rated ''Centrifugal Funk'' three stars out of five, calling it "an exhausting listen" and the songs "fairly weak". Praise was given to the individual talents of Gambale, Garsed and Lane, while criticism was directed at drummer Joey Heredia. "Hey Tee Bone" and "Love Struck" were listed as highlights.

Track listing

Personnel

–

(except track 7) *

– guitar (tracks 2, 3, 8) *

– guitar (tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 8) *Mike O'Neill – guitar (except track 7) * T.J. Helmerich – guitar (track 8),

ing (reissue) *

–

*Joey Heredia –

*Kevin Ricard –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

–

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

–

, EWI *Alan Hirshberg –

, mixing, mastering *Mark Varney – musical concept, executive production

Notes

References

External links

MVP "Truth In Shredding"
album review at Guitar Nine Records *, podcast featuring Frank Gambale

at Guitar Nine Records {{Authority control Frank Gambale albums Allan Holdsworth albums Brett Garsed albums Shawn Lane albums Tone Center Records albums Collaborative albums