Trip The Witch - S/T - (2021)

As the guitarist in Stone Temple Pilots, Dean DeLeo helped define the alternative rock era, establishing a permanent presence on commercial radio with the now-staple hits “Interstate Love Song”, “Plush”, and “Vasoline”. Initially known for his chunky riffing style, DeLeo proved increasingly versatile as Stone Temple Pilots moved away from grunge and expanded into more refined expressions of soft rock, bossa nova, and jazz-tinged ballads that hewed closer to Burt Bacharach than hard rock. DeLeo, who sounded especially agile and inventive when playing solos, also showed that he had an extra touch of radiance at his fingertips when it came to riffs too. Where his 1990s peers often relied on force, DeLeo instead preferred color, crafting his parts out of giant, billowing chords suffused with shades of emotional contrast.
For anyone paying attention, a layer of finesse has always lurked under Stone Temple Pilots’ muscular riff-rock exterior. That said, it’s made sense all along to point to DeLeo’s brother Robert, the band’s bassist and resident jazz lover who also plays guitar, as the primary source of their material’s stealth elegance—especially since the DeLeos’ writing partnership formed the nucleus of their other groups Talk Show and Army of Anyone as well. Trip the Witch, Dean’s new long-distance collaboration with premiere Nashville session guitarist Tom Bukovac, calls into question whether the alt-rock icon, for all his achievements, has ever gotten as much recognition as his range calls for—even from his fans.
On paper, this project (named after a Scott Weiland-penned line from the Stone Temple Pilots deep cut “Ride the Cliché”) gives the appearance that DeLeo has paired up with a musician who can cover much the same ground as his brother—i.e: modes that we might assume lie outside of his wheelhouse. And Bukovac’s resumé, with over 800 recording credits to his name, certainly looks like it could cause even the most seasoned players to defer to him. In truth, though, the two guitarists mesh so seamlessly on their self-titled debut that it’s difficult (at first) to tell their playing apart. Throughout the album, Bukovac and DeLeo demonstrate such a natural empathy for each other’s playing that it’s hard to believe the two have actually never met in person. Clearly, they’ve found in one another the kind of instant, symbiotic—profound—a connection that every musician dreams of. (partial review pop matters)

Nothing like STP, A very laid back instrumental set (except 1st track has vocal)