Danny Muth - Danny Muth

Danny Muth

Danny Muth
​self-released; 2020

3.8 out of 5

By Dan Weston

Danny Muth is a musician from Sacramento, California who recently released a seven-song self-titled release Danny Muth. It’s an instrumental album with the focus on guitar. He mentions he has played with various jazz, alternative, dance, traditional and punk groups across Northern California. You could say a lot of that comes out in his music.

He opens with “Persona, Ego, Shadow” and it contains a number of layered guitar parts. One of the guitars acts as the foundation revolving around a couple of root notes. The remaining guitar creates a Pink Floyd type vibe with occasionally dissonant notes being thrown in. At the end of the day it felt like a hypnotic build. 

Next up is “On the Spectrum.’' The production was lo-fi and also veered towards an early ’80s aesthetics in some ways. It reminded me of Joy Division in terms of the production especially the drum sound. The music also feels a little noir and surf inspired. As the song progresses the groove stays consistent with the lead guitar being the focal point. It was a great tune.

“Mele Ka'aihue” has some pretty guitar picking but also felt like a vignette at under two minutes. I would have liked to have this song explored a little more. Muth mentions Robert Fripp as an influence and I picked up on that on “Intent vs. Impact.” The song has a good amount of energy and he does a little more shredding on this song. “Final Turnout” is a bit of a slow burn and goes into psychedelic territory while “AndyJohnnyFrankie” has some the most infectious and memorable melodies on the release.

“Triggered Privilege” felt like a closer. It was a little more dissonant, melancholy and epic. I enjoyed the darker distortion and white noise from the guitar juxtaposed against the delicate guitar picking.

As an engineer myself I thought Muth did a solid job with the recordings. It seemed fairly obvious to me he prefers older aesthetics in that department from the ’70s and ’80s.

​I thought this album contained a solid number of instrumental tracks. He certainly is a dynamic artist and a versatile guitar player. Take a listen.

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