Just when you thought you’ve heard it all and nothing/no one is going to surprise you.
Everything has already been played, all paths have been explored – there’s not much to expect, right?
WRONG!
Guthrie Govan with his début album brings a breath of fresh air to a genre that suffers -severely- from lack of originality.
Various styles ideally blended -that probably explains why the fusion community had a more enthusiastic response- compositions close to perfection and above all, it all comes naturally.
This is NOT one of those “I’ll impress everyone by displaying how many different things I can play and my flashy techniques”; that’s kid’s stuff if you ask me – although I do enjoy it occasionally 😛
Guthrie’s music flows. If I had to mention another work as a reference point, I’d say Steve Vai’s “Fire garden”.
Incidentally, that is also the only -apparent- influence I can spot in “Erotic cakes”.
Other trivial, or not so trivial, stuff:
Jan Cyrka -a guitarist very dear to me- is responsible for the production & mix; Richie Kotzen & Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal are special guests.

To cut a long story sort:
A great step forward for guitar oriented music and not only. Guthrie Govan will ASTONISH you; personally speaking I consider him the best player under 40.
Don’t forget to check the band he formed with John Payne, Jay Schellen and Ryo Okumoto, called GPS.
I strongly recommend you get both CDs, “Erotic cakes” AND “Window to the soul”.
I ordered my copies from InsideOut Music Store [that’s the European department in Germany] – Last time I checked only the latter was available…

Guthrie Govan at Wikipedia
GPS at Wikipedia
“Erotic cakes” at RateYourMusic
“Erotic cakes” at Discogs

Record Label: Cornford Records
Catalogue Number: Corn 0001
UPC: n/a
Rights Society: MCPS [UK]
Mastering SID Code: IFPI L135
Matrix/Runout: IMPRESS CORN0001 01
Mould SID Code 1: IFPI 04AL
Mould SID Code 2: IFPI 0440

Tracklist:
01. Waves [5:09]
02. Erotic cakes [3:51]
03. Wonderful slippery thing [3:21]
04. Ner ner [8:05]
05. Fives [4:36]
06. Uncle Skunk [5:29]
07. Sevens [5:57]
08. Eric [5:05]
09. Slidey boy [4:35]
10. Rhode Island shred [2:18]
11. Hangover [6:32]
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
*Legal Disclaimer*

FLAC CD-rip nfo
Mirrors:
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Filecloud.io]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Filefactory.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Mega.co.nz]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Megaupload.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Netkups.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Openload.io]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Putlocker.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Solidfiles.com] ✔ [05/08/2016]

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mp3 CD-rip nfo
Mirrors:
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Filecloud.io]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Filefactory.com]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Mega.co.nz]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Megaupload.com]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Rapidshare.com]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Solidfiles.com] ✔ [07/01/2013]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Zippyshare.com] ✔ [07/01/2013]

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October 30th, 2010
Time for an update:

While going through an old hard disk with the intention to save up some space, I stumbled upon this really cool *guitar clinic* video.
I’m afraid I have no further information other than the year, but I don’t think that ever stopped anyone from enjoying watching a gifted guitarist in action 😉
Hats off to whoever shot this footage, not giving credit where is due is something I despise.
In this case, however, the only thing I remember is that I downloaded it off of a Russian site but that was probably 4 or 5 years ago so…
Do a search on YouTube and you’ll find bits and pieces, mostly individual songs.

As for the album, I just re-uploaded the original CD-rip I’d prepared on April 2009 [using my -perfectly working at the time- Plextor PX-716SA in conjunction with Exact Audio Copy] adding some mirrors for your convenience.
If you grabbed it then, you can skip the rest and focus on the video.
Unfortunately the CD has been out of stock for quite some time, I doubt you’ll find any copies left [except maybe used ones on eBay – but at what price I wonder].
A shame really, not owning the original is a crime!
Excuse my momentary lapse of vanity, but I can’t help feeling privileged for the opportunity to order a copy while it was still in stock.
If it’s any consolation, I too have a really long (wish)list of CDs [or special editions, mostly Japanese pressings] either out of print or even worse available at extravagant prices due to rarity.
Did that make you feel any better?
No?
There’s a remedy you know:
Just play “Waves” and the “Wonderful slippery thing” consecutively and you’ll forget your own name let alone the reason you worried about in the first place!

Ratings
Skills/Virtuosity: ★9½
Guitar tone: ★9
Forming GPS (along with John Payne, Jay Schellen and Ryo Okumoto) creating a masterpiece which makes all Asia albums combined look pale in comparison: ★10

“Guitar Clinic 2004” [350,51 MB]
[Video: DivX 3, 576×432, 29.97fps, 927kbps]
[Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 3, 44100Hz, Stereo, 192kbps]
Mirrors:
DivX Video [Filecloud.io]
DivX Video [Fileserve.com]
DivX Video [Freeuploads.fr]
DivX Video [Mega.co.nz] ✔ [18/05/2014]
DivX Video [Megaupload.com]

daniel_daffodil :

Anyone know the password for the Solidfiles mp3 link?
(The one at the bottom of Mirrors section titled mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.98.2 [Solidfiles.com])