The Ultra Zone

Artist: Steve Vai
Label: Sony
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio Cassette
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 074646981740
EAN: 0074646981740
ASIN: B00000K4H8

Release Date: 1999-09-07

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Tracks:

Blood and Tears [Instrumental]
Ultra Zone [Instrumental]
Oooo [Instrumental]
Frank [Instrumental]
Jibboom [Instrumental]
Voodoo Acid
Windows to the Soul
Silent Within
I'll Be Around
Lucky Charms [Instrumental]
Fever Dream [Instrumental]
Here I Am
Asian Sky

Similar Items:

Fire Garden
Sex & Religion
Alien Love Secrets
Passion and Warfare
Alive in an Ultra World

Customer Reviews:

Not the Vai I remember - more electronic beeps than electric guitar.......2007-03-10

I loved Vai's work twenty years ago, so I decided to pick up a newer album of his to see how it was. Vai had a way of making a guitar really sing in some melody but he could also rip out the metal type jams when he had to. This album seems not like any guitar album I have heard. It is a strange, ambient and oriental type of sound that again, does not sound like a guitar, or Vai himself was even around. Maybe it is just an experimental kind of album, but goodness what happened to some structure? This is not even noodling, some of this is like someone left the answering machine on and then let their five-year-old pound on multiple levels of xylophones with sticks. Some may think this is a masterpiece but my opinion is that it is an experimental album that tries to hard to come up with innovative sounds. In the meantime, where is the guitar?

Good, not great........2006-07-15

I've been a very long time Vai fan, but never picked this album up until today. The opening track got me as I'm a huge fan of Indian music and culture. There was no needless soloing in it, just a powerful feeling. OOOO and Lucky Charms (which has a Flex-able vibe) are my two other favorite tracks. The vocal tracks just don't have much melody to them and can't hold a candle to the ones on Sex & Religion and Fire Garden. It's good to get if you're a Vai fan, but start with Passion & Warfare, Disturbing the Peace (Alcatrazz), or Eat 'em & Smile (David Lee Roth).

Baffling...with few gems........2006-07-01

First, I'm a big fan of Steve's music. But this recording makes very little sense. The first five songs range from good to great. Then the last eight songs range from bad to confusing to dreadful. I can't understand how such a fantastic musician, with such great feeling, and depth of emotion can create such a mess. He has the skills!! I have most of Steve's recordings, and this stands out as a near disaster. Mostly disapointing.

Really really good... but not as good as Fire Garden was........2006-06-26

This is a REALLY GOOD album... but not a GREAT one like Fire Garden. For most every song here I think of something very similar and slightly better on Fire Garden:

Compositions: "Lucky Charms" is the best here, and I love the tune; it's awesome, brilliant, and one of those "happy sounding" things that Vai is capable of pulling off. But in terms of composition, I'm not sure if he'll ever be able to top "Fire Garden Suite" (especially if you throw in "Bangkok" as the opener).

Vocal Ballads: "I'll be Around" and "Windows to the Soul" and "The Silent Within" are all good vocal ballads... but none are nearly as good, or as gut-wrenching as either of "Brother" or "All About Eve".

Instrumental Ballads: "Frank" is a good emotional instrumental to Frank Zappa, but is still nothing compared to either "Hand on Heart" or "Warm Regards"

Jammin' Rockers: "Jibboom" is a nice jammin' tribute to SRV (along the lines of SRV's "Scuttle Buttin'") and Vai does jam really well in it... but he jams well in the "Crying Machine" and "Dying Day" too; (and actually, his best shredding is on Alien Love Secrets, or maybe his live DVD's).

Vocal Rockers: "Here I Am" and "Asian Sky" are both good and actually catchy tunes, but c'mon: "Little Alligator" was so good he named his volume pedal after it, and "Aching Hunger" also measures favorably to anything found here).

Other than that, the rest is various filler. Of course, with Vai, even the filler is extremely good and worth listening to, but overall, given the clear superiority of Fire Garden, the best I can do here is 4 stars. It's good... just not spectacular the way Fire Garden was.

Summary: if you're new to Vai, I'd recommend "Fire Garden" first, then "Alien Love Secrets", then this one along with "Passion and Warfare" and "Alive in an Ultra World." His "Live at Astoria" DVD is great too.

Say Bach, Wagner, Rachmaninoff ... and Vai.......2005-12-20

This is one of the great albums of rock.
To me the best of this work is Tracks 8 & 9: The Silent Within is about what it means to be a human being. ("God only knows and He ain't talkin'.") I'll Be Around is about being someone for someone else. Very profound and beautiful.
We're talking about a composer of tremendous musical creativity and religious depth, in the true heritage of Bach, Wagner and Rachmaninoff.
Actually, Steve Vai's career very much resembles that of Rachmaninoff: In his 20's one of the great virtuosos of his instrument, then transformed into a composer of extraordinary creativity, depth and beauty.
One wonders, what's going on at Rolling Stone? Here, if anywhere, one expects to find people who can recognise great talent, especially when it's splashed at their front door. "Fire Garden", "The Ultra Zone" and "Real Illusions: Reflections" should be way up there on the list of best albums.
I think I have part of the answer: Till recently, there has been a schism between rock and religion. One sees that within the Vai community: Many of his enthusiastic fans have had problems with his recent Ultra Zone and Real Illusions.
Well, welcome to the present. Rock has come of age. Good rock today is about God-togetherness - or loss of it. And it's not standard hallelujah-cliches, but in the great tradition of Bach, Wagner and Rachmaninoff.
There's one thing that mystifies me about this album: Why is the volume here lower than on all other Vai-albums? (I have an entirely official recording.)

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