Pete Banks
Self-Contained

Pete Banks is an old hand at progressive rock, a classy guitarist, imaginative, endowed with refined technique but most of all with great musical taste, an artist who has never fully enjoyed the recognition that his talent deserves.

After being part of the early formation of Yes and the now-deceased Flash, Pete feels the need to express himself solo and in 1973 releases "Two Sides of Peter Banks," assembling a team of renowned musicians that includes Jan Akkerman, John Wetton, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and two members of Flash, Ray Bennett and Mike Hough. Twenty years later, in 1993, he releases "Instinct", and two years after that, this "Self-contained" that wholly mirrors its approach. It is, in fact, a completely instrumental work, recorded at home, where Pete plays all the instruments overdubbed (apart from the intervention of keyboardist Gerald Goff in one track), on top of signing all the compositions. A Pete Banks who stylistically wants to renew and turn the page, something that is already apparent from the gag present in the first track, where in an audio fragment, you hear him tuning a radio dial searching for a station, at one point finding one that broadcasts an old Flash song (Small beginnings), bypassing it without hesitation with a sigh: "Oh my God...". Now his guitar style is significantly inspired by contemporary icons such as: Pat Metheny, Adrian Belew, and particularly Steve Vai.

The risk of slipping into boredom with a fundamentally 'guitar-based' album over 75 minutes long is very high, but our man manages it admirably and apart from a few weary moments, the listening flows pleasantly, thanks to his explosive and evocative playing. Twenty-one tracks that weave through various styles: progressive, heavy rock, jazz, funky, techno pop (in Thomas Dolby style), with Oriental and Hellenic nods. The multicolored intertwines of his six strings soar over a background led by drum machines and interspersed with audio clips containing narrating voices and various noises. All the tracks are of good quality, even though my preferred episode is the final one: "Thinking of You", a short electric ballad played in solitude, which alone is worth the entire album.

In the end, it’s an excellent guitar album, even if it cannot be called a masterpiece, it is pleasant to hear the 'roar' of an old lion (sixty-one years old) who still has a lot to say.