Mike Portnoy – Prime Cuts

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Magna Carta
Produced by Peter Morticelli & Mike Varney

A Mike Portnoy solo album? Well, not really. It’s a collection of tracks that he happens to have played drums on, on various releases by Magna Carta Records.

Both the Liquid Tension Experiment (instrumental prog-fusion outfit featuring Portnoy, Dream Theater band mates John Petrucci (guitars) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards) and bassist extraordinaire Tony Levin) albums were on that label, so there’s four tracks here from those, plus a (terrible) remix of Another Dimension by Mark Gage of Vapourspace. The label also released tribute albums to Rush and ELP, on which Mike played a total of three songs, all of which appear here. Lastly, Mike played on some songs on former Dixie Dregs bassist Andy West’s album Rama 1, one of which is included here.

The Andy West track, Mad March, kicks off the CD. Besides West on bass and Mike on drums, it also features guitarists Mike Keneally (Ex-Frank Zappa) and Toshi Iseda. It’s a four minute instrumental that rocks hard. Of the four Liquid Tension Experiment tracks featured here in their original form, Freedom of Speech and Acid Rain are the pick. Both exhibit supreme musicianship and don’t at any point suffer from being self-indulgent or boring. Elsewhere Sebastian Bach, Jake E. Lee (ex-Ozzy Osbourne), Billy Sheehan (Ex-My Big/Steve Vai) and Brendt Allman (Shadow Gallery) appear on Working Man and Dream Theater’s James LaBrie appears with the same musicians on By-Tor And The Snow Dog, both tracks lifted from the Working Man (Tribute To Rush) album. Both are excellent, slightly heavier versions of the originals.

The rest of the tracks serve as nothing more than filler. Unless of course, you’re a drum nut and want this record purely for Portnoy’s playing, because it is top-drawer as always. Endless Enigma from the ELP Tribute CD Encores, Legends and Paradox, featuring ex-Yes/Asia keyboard player Geoff Downes and Magellan members Wayne (bass) and Trent (Vocals) Gardner, does indeed seem endless and demonstrates every quality that (undeservedly) gives prog a bad name.

So, a somewhat haphazard collection of tracks from several sources that just happen to feature the same drummer. There’s no continuity at all, and only half the tracks are really worth the listen. The liner notes spew pretentious musical descriptions of each song that really only make for good reading if you are an aforementioned drum nut. To the rest of us, it’s just pointless. I recommend seeking out a copy of the Rush tribute CD and Andy West’s album instead. Drum nuts and Dream Theater completists only.

“ haphazard ”

Tracklist: Mad March / Freedom of Speech / Acid Rain / Endless Enigma / Chris And Kevin’s Excellent Adventure / Working Man / By-Tor And The Snow Dog / Another Dimension / Three Minute Warning

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Progressive, Mike Portnoy