New Sheer Velocity Album Features Members of Testament, Living Colour and More

Guitarist Andee Blacksugar (KMFDM, Black Sugar Transmission) has decided to use the current quarantine to his creative advantage, producing an entire album’s worth of material, Lockdown Lullabies, in just two weeks, with some very special guests on board.

“Starting on Monday March 16th, I went on social media each day and asked my followers/friends for a key, tempo and title, and, armed with those crowd-sourced suggestions, I’d write and record an instrumental guitar piece by the end of the day (with a video update to prove it),” explains Andee. “I pledged to post the album online two weeks later, after I’d accumulated 13 tracks.”

And since Andee isn’t the only one stuck at home, he enlisted the help of some high-profile musician friends for guest parts, including members of Testament, Living Colour, Saigon Kick, Enuff Znuff and more.

I’m only loosely familiar with Andee’s previous work (I’ve seen him perform live with NYC noise act Body Stuff and Saigon Kick guitarist Jason Bieler), but I didn’t realize the guy was such a shred savant. This album is gooooood! Maybe it’s the power of suggestion speaking, but the general feel and tone of Lockdown Lullabies reminds me a bit of Vernon Reid’s solo album, Mistaken Identity, a mix of industrial, jazz, funk and shred.

Stream the entire album below or on Bandcamp! Here’s the full list of guest artists:

ALEX SKOLNICK (Testament)
VERNON REID (Living Colour)
JASON BIELER (Saigon Kick)
TIMO ELLIS (The Netherlands)
QUIST (Bryan Ferry)
TORY STOFFREGEN (Enuff Znuff)
LEE WERTMAN
DJ NELSON (Ravens)
CHRIS BUONO (cB3/RedRightReturn)
ADAM NANEZ
LEON GRUENBAUM (Vernon Reid, Genes & Machines, James Blood Ulmer)
BEN HIGGINS
ERIC13 (Combichrist)