An instructor at the Guitar Institute of Technology and composer for film and television, Marc Bonilla appears to owe his opportunity to make EE Ticket, his debut album, to his stint in the touring version of Patrick Leonard and Kevin Gilbert's band Toy Matinee; Gilbert engineered and produced the album, which is being released by Reprise Records, Toy Matinee's label. But if Reprise intended to introduce a new guitar hero to compete with the likes of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, Bonilla doesn't sound like those players. Maybe it's his academic background, but he is much more of a classicist than an innovator, on the evidence of EE Ticket. This album may be a 1991 release, but it sounds like the '80s never happened. Rather, Bonilla stands squarely in the post-Jimi Hendrix '70s tradition of Robin Trower, Ritchie Blackmore, and, especially, Jeff Beck. He can be fleet of finger (for example on Hit and Run), but he never goes for the kind of showoff speed that Eddie Van Halen delights in. Rather, he is ever mindful of melody and logical progression, steeped in the 1960s (there are stray references to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles), and always tasteful. His technique is assured, but it is never displayed for its own sake. In this sense, EE Ticket is reminiscent of such '70s Beck albums as Blow by Blow and Wired. Many fans of instrumental guitar rock will applaud that, but for those who have become infatuated with the sonic explorations of Satriani and Vai, this will sound old-school. Marc Bonilla comes to play, not to shred. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi

1		Entrance
2		White Noise
3		Mannequin Highway
4		Commotion
5		Lycanthrope
6		Hit and Run
7		Afterburner
8		Hurling Blues Skyward
9		Antonio's Love Jungle
10		Razorback
11		Slaughter on Memory Lane
12		Exit