‘Nights In Shining Karma,’ is the first solo release of the ex-Zero axe man Warren Mendonsa. The album can be characterized by its melody and feel, rather than speed and antics. Apart from guitars, Warren can also be heard playing bass and keyboards, while younger brother Zorran fills in with acoustic work and programming the drums.

Guitarists often feel the urge and the need to belt out a thousand notes a minute to make their presence felt, and to show off their technique. The natural tendency is to overlook one of the most important techniques, control. Control is something which becomes clearly evident when listening to experienced players and here too, in the case of this 20 something Indian guitar hero.

Track Analysis:

(1) Incense

Under a minute and half the opening number is just a teaser. A heads up for what’s in store. It seems more relevant when the following two tracks get a hearing and it becomes easily clubbable with them.

(2) Soar The Sky

A beautiful acoustic intro before Warren kicks in with his Andy Timmons’s style guitar work. With heavy inputs now and than the track should keep the hard rockers interested too.

(3) Anuva’s Sky

Anurva’s Sky has a very positive and motivating feel to it. It’s almost as if Mendonsa is opening up a story book and narrating a fairy tale to his beloved. Zorran’s acoustic strumming shouldn’t go unnoticed.

(4) Blues For Gary

The Blues should never just be heard, it should be felt. This track allows the listener to do just that. A fine blend of B.B. King & Gary Moore. Although classic blues material the track has Warren occasionally stepping out of the blues scale and experimenting boldly.

(5) A Weekend With You (And Nothing Else To Do)

Short and sweet with a romantic vibe to it. Bern Fernandes on the piano really helps bring out the warm tone of the guitar. The bass work is simple yet effective and spells out vintage jazz charm.

(6) The Cat And The Fiddle

Warren turns up the distortion on this one while maintaining a fun country feel. Quite an odd ball when compared to the rest of the album, but it’s crazy enough to make sure no one cares.

(7) Nights In Shining Karma

The title track is powerful and entrancing. A nice example for the point mentioned earlier about control. Warren’s delay control is spot on with every hit. The Gilmour influence is evident although Warren has done enough to leave his own mark.

(8) Bombay Rain

The tone. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. But after an intense build up, Warren misses out on an opportunity to really rip things up and end the album in style. Still, Bombay’s rain never sounded so good.

The normal inclination is to draw parallels to the likes of Satriani or Gilmour but hearing this album one gets the feeling that a few years down the line, Warren Mendonsa will become a benchmark himself against which guitarists will be measured. A great sign for things to come. A brilliant effort from a sincere musician.

* The full album is available for download from Warren’s site, www.blackstratblues.com . And its for free.

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Rishi Agarwal is a student of finance and is a multi genre guitarist. He likes playing with his dog, christened Elvis after The King. He lives off the likes of Hendrix and Clapton , and aspires to one day jam with John Mclaughlin of The Mahavishnu Orchestra.