GREG RAPAPORT – Homunculus

Homunculus – “… Popular belief held that a plant grew where a hanged man expelled his semen during the last convulsive spasms before death. Its roots vaguely resemble a humanform to varying degrees. The root was to be picked before dawn on a Friday morning by a black dog, then washed and “fed” with milk and honey and, in some descriptions, blood, whereupon it would fully develop into a miniature human which would guard and protect its owner.

This project is an exploration of the many different facets that make up one’s personality. Each song represents a facet of the personified homunculus. Delving deeper into that personification may reveal a bit more than you’d like to know.”

These two paragraphs were taken from the inside back cover of this album. At first, hesitation may set in, not knowing what to expect. Then curiosity takes over after reading the explanation of Greg’s latest project.

This is almost a concept-driven instrumental album format in the true sense, but classified as Progressive Rock/Metal. Listening closely, you will hear some Jazz-Fusion and Funk influencing some of his other styles of play. Mr. Rapaport, a very talented musician in his own right, spent over 2 years working on this project in his home studio. He handles all of the instrumentation himself: 7-string guitar, bass, synthesizers, and programming. Who says you need a middleman? A seasoned player of 25 years, Greg has continued writing, recording, practicing, and teaching, turning him into a competent artist, songwriter, and soloist.

It’s hard to fathom that in all this time Greg is still fairly unknown for all his efforts over the years. A good album review for his latest release certainly wouldn’t hurt. Greg has four releases to date that are all solo efforts and entirely instrumentals. This short discography (considering the amount of time he has been playing and recording) can be summarized as: Artifacts (1999), Wyrd (2001), Azrael Block (2003), and his latest release Homunculus (2006). Greg also has two other releases, Nero (1998) and Waiting For Darker Skies (1998) … both involving other musicians and not entirely instrumental.

There are 10 full-length tracks on the CD where each track explores a different attribute of the human psyche. Each song personifies an attribute through its style and composition. Each one of these titles correlate an individual idea to a certain aspect or psyche within the human personality. Listening to these ideas unfold within your mind is the reward. Here are the tracks from the CD, which in turn are the individual ideas. “The Sojourner” (Confined), “The Brawler” (Affliction), “The Corruptor” (Righteous), “The Scapegoat” (Revenge), “The Alchemist” (Infernal), “The Assassin” (Guilt), “The Swindler” (Loss), “The Mystic” (Antipathy), “The Jester” (Despair), and “The Priest” (Depraved).

Anyway, listening to this new material repeatedly, whether trying to match the music to the track to see where the journey might take oneself, or just appreciating it for what it’s worth had basically the same effect. The second method will likely work best for most listeners. Greg is fortunate enough to get away with this here since the music in itself can hold up fine without all the analysis that went on in his head while he wrote and recorded the material. If you want to get away from it all and put something in the CD player to take you away, go ahead, by all means, because this new release by Greg Rapaport, with it’s strange Homuncululus name and all, will entertain you more than you may have first imagined.