Shove the Sun Aside

Dave Weiner would like you to travel down this brief but memorable instrumental road that at times sounds like the soft, deliberate licks of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on the leadoff "Andonova," which then evolves into something out of Mark Knopfler's soundtrack repertoire. From there, Weiner moves into the quasi-Primus category of hard rock, but with a thick slab of bass at times thanks to Philip Bynoe during "Long Run." Wide reaching and quite winding at times, the song settles briefly into a funky, light jazz-rock mold. Fans of Jeff Beck and Steve Vai would love this tune. "Monument Shine," meanwhile, is a tamer affair that slowly builds into a fine crunchy instrumental rock ditty with some soaring riffs for the wordless chorus. It tends to be a bit grandiose or regal, with the closing synthesizers giving it an ethereal, otherworldly feel. But it's still quite good. Fans of Creed would also enjoy the bombastic, hard-then-soft ebb and flow of "The Ghost of Denmark St." Weiner is an accomplished guitarist and his experience brings each of these songs to life, especially the folksy Celtic acoustic opening to "Tourmaline." The lone low point might be on the closing "Shove the Sun Aside," which has the guitars buried in the mix under a bland electro-rock or synthesized format. Weiner breaks out of the mire but it comes off as too little, too late.