Instinct
Released in 1993. Wildcat WLD-9205.
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Buy it @ CDUniverse!

I. No Place Like Home
II. All Points South
III. Fogbound
IV. Sticky Wicket
V. Shortcomings
VI. Code Blue
VII. Angels
VIII. Anima Mundi
IX. Swamp Report
X. Instinctive Behavior
XI. Dominating Factor
XII. Never The Same

All tracks written by Peter Banks except tracks 2, 6, 9, 12 - Banks/Goff and track 11 - Banks/Forth.
Published by Momentum Music Ltd. except track 11 - Momentum Music Ltd/Copyright Control.

Recorded at Basically Portable: Los Angeles; London Final Mix at Zero One, Surrey, England.

ALBUMS REVIEWS

by Mott The Dog
This superb, but alarmingly underrated guitarist has a fine pedigree, first coming to notice in the mid sixties in a wonderful flower power band called “Syn” with a certain Chris Squires on bass, then joined by vocalist Jon Anderson they became the marvellously monickered “Mabel Greer’s Toy Shop”. Finding this a bit of a mouthful, and with the addition of Toy Kaye on keyboards & Bill Bruford on drums, they found instant international acclaim as “Yes”.

Two wonderful albums followed “Yes”& “Time and a Word”, and at this point Peter Banks was booted out, due to his ambitions of entertaining an audience rather than trying to educate them (it was at this point that Mott became a fan, always wanting to have fun & cowering from education). To this day, Yes guitarist Steve Howe, and Trevor Rabin have made a career out of copying Bank’s trademark guitar licks.

Peter Banks went on to form “Flash” who released 3 respectable albums, once described as “Yes music played by Thunder & Lightning”, before being swamped by bad management & punk rock. After spending the eighties mainly in session work & looking for suitable musicians to work with, Peter Banks went solo in the nineties with this enchanting album “Instinct”.

From the opening rippling guitar chords of opening cut “No Place Home” to the final bell which closes the album your ears are held in thrall by this maestro of the six string.

An instrumental album, it always holds your attention by its diversity and humour (you will have to listen to the music to get that). Satriani, Vai, and Co would give their eye teeth to put out such a fine collection of fretwork & tunes.

The two central passages are track 4, “Sticky Wickets” played on a midi guitar synthesizer, which starts out funky, and then turns itself inside out to reach a shattering climax.

Before you have time to push the repeat button Banks is off again with track 5, “Short Comings” totally tasteless and not at all Jazzy with a relentless four in the bar bass drum, the night of a thousand guitars with Peter Banks, the fastest guitar slinger in town.

The final track is “Never The Same” a moving tribute to Peter Banks’s late mother. Never has such a beautiful piece of music been played on the electric guitar.

If you hear this music, like me I’m sure you will be mystified why Peter Banks is not an international star. The album cover & the inside sleeve notes are worth the price of the CD alone so you cannot lose. Dogs have superb instinct, trust this dogs instinct, and add this “Instinct” to you collection, you won’t regret it.
Source: http://www.pattayamail.com/401/columns.htm

by Saley David William
Excellent instrumental rack guitar album. He must have been working on this ever since Flash broke up you can tell a lot of time and effort was put into each piece. There is a bit of experiment in this project and I think it turned out well. One funny thing in a lot of the tracks there are noises and voices in in the background and in track 5 "Shortcomings" you you can barely hear this woman say a reunion but where is Peter Banks? I guess that is his shot at Yes. A good album for people who like Steve Howe, Hackett Vai (he admits to being inspired by Vai on one tune- easy to tell which one also) etc. A guitar enthusiast must.
Source http://www.wilmington.net/yes/back-issues/0112

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