Scott's Song by Song #84: Alberto Rigoni, Michael Manring and Stu Hamm - Dystopia

 

Welcome to issue #84 of Scott’s Song By Song (#scottssongbysong).For more information about this series, click here: 

https://www.facebook.com/share/Gc2VkwHQWGLdeaDd/?mibextid=oFDknk

Let’s call this one, back to “Bass-ics” as this album features three of the world’s top bassists in a collaboration called “Dystopia”.  Alberto Rigoni (Jeff Scott Soto, Jordan Rudess, Marco Minnemann, Gavin Harrison), Michael Manring (Spastic Ink, Alex Skolnik/Skol Patrol, Attention Deficit, Steve Morse, Alex De Grassi, Will Ackerman and others) and Stuart (Stu) Hamm (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Frank Gambale) are the bassists and they are augmented by drummers Tim “Herb” Alexander (Primus) and David Menoudakis (Motion Device). Rigoni is the album’s producer.

The album comes courtesy of the all-around awesome guy Nick Katona (the man has style!) and his label Melodic Revolution Records (MMR).  It was released on February 27, 2026. I look forward to reviewing more music released by this label.  As always, this is a cold listen, I receive no additional compensation, and I call it like I hear it.  The only frame of reference I have going into this is “Fish Out of Water” by the late, great Chris Squire, but this album is a fully instrumental affair, so it should be interesting.  

Without further ado, let’s get down deep into it.

Track 1 - Genesis (4:26)

A moderately slow chordal pattern starts off the track, and a cool drum groove comes in with a polyrhythmic pattern.  At around 1 minute in, they lock into a groove.  They are using some effects that make some of the bass notes sound almost brass-like; very cool.  The drums play some amazing fills.  The groove changes at around 3:25. I don’t know which bassist is playing what, but there was a cool lead break near the ending.  Great tune!

Track 2 - The Algorithm (3:16)

This begins with droning sounds, onto which a fretless bass plays an opening tune.  So far there are no drums on this and it is very atmospheric.  I wonder if one or more of them is using a synth pickup module to create some of these sounds.  Nice soundscape track.

Track 3 - Entropia (3:55)

This one has a jazzy groove to it, with shifting meters.  It’s very proggy!  Lots of great rhythms here. There is a melodic hook.  Cool bass and drum synchronicity at around 3:20 on a morse code rhythm.  I like it!

Track 4 - Limbo (3:59)

This fades in with some foreboding sounds.  No drums on this one.  There is a sense of motion, however, caused by the rhythms.  One of the basses takes on a piano-like tone.  There are some unique effects in the later part of the track.  Pretty interesting.

Track 5 - Solar (3:27)

I like the descending, chord-melody thing that they start with here.  The drums are back in a big way here. I like the changing melodies and grooves throughout this track.  These guys are definitely among the best in the world and are showing it on this track. Great drum solo after 3 minutes.  One of my favorites from the album, I’d say!

Track 6 - Ethereal Horizon (2:34)

Bass harmonics are featured as this one begins.  The synth-like tones are back; maybe a whammy pedal?  They are certainly re-defining what the bass can do here.  

Track 7 - Dystopia (8:46)

The final/title track is the longest, so let’s call it a closing epic.  A rhythm pattern with drums is established quickly.  At around 1:30 one of the guys takes on a lead guitar type tone, which is later harmonized with another player; they use a distortion effect.  Following that, there is a really cool canon-like section with the three playing overlapping tunes.  Great drum grooves on this as well.  They really take us through several grooves and moods.  I love the groove that kicks in at around the 5-minute mark.  I like the slow harmonies as they approach the 7-minute mark; gradually all 3 of them take part in the chords, and there are overdubs as well as it keeps building.  It is a rich, brassy tone they are creating.  The bass can create many timbres and they show it here.  The only thing missing for me is a final punctuation for the ending, as it just kind of stopped.  Otherwise, this is clearly the flag-ship track of the album.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

This is a fairly short album at around 31 minutes, perhaps we should call it an EP.  Regardless, this is an entertaining way to spend half an hour and see what three master-bassists (sorry, I’ll go sit in the corner now…) can do.  It was an interesting experiment and yielded some cool results.  I have no Idea whether they are planning to follow-up with more releases, but it’s worth checking out.  I’ll give this a respectable 4.25 out of 5, or 85%.  Thanks again to Nick Katona and MRR for providing me with this music for review.  I expect there be more in the not-too-distant future.

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Prog On!

Scott

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LINKS FOR LISTENING/PURCHASING:

Bandcamp: 

https://albertorigoni-usa.bandcamp.com/album/dystopia

Here is a linktree for MRR:

https://li.sten.to/mrrshopnmore

Alberto Rigoni’s Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/AlbertoRigoniMusic/

Album Trailer:

https://youtu.be/b7bLIOA_Cnk?list=RDb7bLIOA_Cnk

The Title Track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziRoTI0R0mY&list=RDziRoTI0R0mY&start_radio=1