Hi, I'm Mark Valentino, a guitarist from New York ......There are probably a few thousand guitarists on this small piece of land we call Long Island....What makes me different from the rest?...Well, I eat, drink, breathe, live and bleed my music.... Not convinced?.....Please listen to the 4 songs I have provided here....These songs are from my 2003 release entitled "American Spirit".....If ya like what ya hear, message me to find out how to obtain a copy of my CD...
REVIEWS:
MUSIC EXTREME.COM - SEPTEMBER, 2003
MARK VALENTINO - AMERICAN SPIRIT (Independent , 2003)
Mark Valentino is a great guitarist and composer that here deliver ten compositions full of melodies, energy and feeling. Here we have a guy that has a lot of technique in his playing and at the same time his playing is full of feelings making his guitar almost sing. His trademark is the heavy bending notes that he delivers through all the compositions. And he creates really soulful melodies that give tracks like "Aztec Sunrise" a lot of diversity and feeling. Here we have Mark mixing rocking guitars with clean ones (as in tracks like "The Stranger") and playing also the bass and programming the drums managing to create ten compositions that are really well developed and will never bore you because they have a lot of variations. Here we have a guitar player that deserves to be listened a lot.
Detritus 235 - Week of August 12, 2003
MARK VALENTINO - AMERICAN SPIRIT (B-) Bacciagallup Music, 2003
10 tracks, RT: 49:55
www.markvalentino.tk
www.cosmosmoon.tk
The first solo album from Cosmo's Moon guitarist Mark Valentino is a
mostly-instrumental affair, consisting of eight instrumental tracks
and two with vocals. Valentino wrote, produced, arranged, and
performed everything on AMERICAN SPIRIT so this truly is a *solo*
album, and it's a nice showcase for his playing. His leads are
noteworthy and have a real smart, singing tone that should be his
trademark. Throughout the album he also throws in a few tricks, like
using drastically different tones to simulate two different guitarists
playing on the same track (as in "The Stranger," which has a nifty,
smoky/melancholy gunslinger/cowboy vibe) and churning out multiple
solos per song (as in the ballad "For A Moment"). The three shortest
instrumentals are sparser, with "Song For A Summer Afternoon" having
only acoustic guitar, "From Ashes To Angels" having guitars and keys,
and "Homecoming" having acoustic and electric guitar, while the rest
are "full band" songs. Of those the best is probably "I Said What?,"
which has a raw, old Ratt-styled riff and recalls Cinderella's
"Somebody Save Me." The two vocal tracks, at an average length of
about seven minutes, are simply too long. Valentino has a husky voice
that fits both of the tracks well. With some tightening up "Even
Heroes Bleed" could be a killer, FireHouse-like summer radio hit, and
"Coulda Been The One" could make for a passable ballad a la Poison.
AMERICAN SPIRIT is a good vehicle for Valentino's songwriting and
guitar skills.
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