Track Listing

1. Surfing With The Alien
2. Ice 9
3. Crushing Day
4. Always With Me Always With You
5. Satch Boogie
6. Hill Of The Skull
7. Circles
8. Lords Of Karma
9. Midnight
10. Echo

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7844 in Music
• Released on: 2000-01-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
The LED ZEPPELIN IV of instrumental rock albums, 1987's SURFING WITH THE ALIEN cemented Joe Satriani's status as a top-tier virtuoso axe man. Although Satriani (a teacher to such famous students as Steve Vai and Metallica's Kirk Hammett) began getting recognition following his solo debut, NOT OF THIS EARTH, it was this subsequent record that truly sent the guitarist's career into the stratosphere. With the majority of the album performed by Satch himself (including bass, keyboard, and most drum parts), this is an outing that prominently displays his overall musical talent, while keeping the focus on his amazingly deft, blistering leads. The New York-born guitarist also impresses with his eclectic array of styles, ranging from the fierce hard rock of the title track to the delicate pop of "Always with Me, Always with You" to thebold blues of "Satch Boogie". For those curious about the revered shredder, this is a great introduction, and, for aspiring heavy-metal/hard-rock guitarists, SURFING WITH THE ALIEN is absolutely essential.

Customer Reviews

Time makes a Classic...
Sometimes you can think an album is going to be a classic when it's released, but you can't really know until many years later. Surfing With the Alien is still mentioned in the same breath as Satriani's name. It is the most highly recommended of his albums, I myself bought it on the strength of a recommendation 10 years ago. At the time I was into all sorts of metal and goth from 70's onwards, anything guitar based really, but I resisted the instrumentalists because I thought it a bit geeky. I was surprised and instantly impressed with this album and thought straight away it had the potential to be a classic. While I never became an avid collector of instro albums, I picked up a few over the years. However, this is the one that gets the most play and that, after 10 years, it what makes it classic to me. The fact that many other people share that feeling is what makes this a classic of rock music. This isn't just for metalheads or guitar freaks, anyone who prefers rock to pop should be able to get something out of this music. But if you are metalhead or guitar freak - YOU WILL LOVE IT !!!

An unknown classic
Surfing with the Alien is without doubt one of the finest 'Guitar' albums that you'll ever find. It was released at just the right time, and despite being associated with the poodle-haired widdlers of the time, this album showed a sophistication, technique and composition that very few people could match, and less attempted to emulate.

Almost 15 years on, "Surfing" has become a sought-after album by most aspiring rock guitarists, and is frequently referenced by mainstream music magasines using terms such as "Influential", "Original", "Innovative" etc.

Satriani has a knack of making the mundane sound interesting, and the interesting sound stratospherically fascinating. It's not just a showy jumble of notes played really fast. there are tasteful phrases, riffs, and some astounding acoustic moments, and of course, some good ol' toe-tapping RAWK!

It's not for everybody. Westlife fans will hate it. However, anyone open to music played well, no matter what genre will love this album.

A classic
Joe Satriani (or Satch to his fans) has consistantly delivered innovitave and constantly-changing styles of music. Where his later albums like "Strange Beautiful Music" produced more thought-provoking sounds and did a good job of separating himself from other so-called "stunt guitarists", Surfing With The Alien really is a showcase of Joe's skills more than anything.

It does absolutely rock of course and sounds awesome played loud but I don't think it will do as much for people who aren't fans of instrumental guitar music.

So what are all the big Satch fans loving about this? Well, it starts off with the amazing, can't sit still, highspeed "Crushing Day" followed straight away with one of the most beautiful instrumental ballads "Always With Me, Always With You" and the innovative "Midnight" which sounds great through a good hi-fi.

If you enjoy this, you should of course check out the rest of Joe's releases but in particular (and relating to SWTA) I would recommend The Extremist, Crystal Planet (in my opinion, Satch's greatest work), Flying In A Blue Dream and his latest, "Is There Love In Space?".