Ace Frehley is finally ready to add a new exclamation point to his celebrated career.
For the first time in nearly 20 years, the legendary guitarist has concocted an explosive new solo effort. Flaunting fiery riffs, pristine production and jaw-dropping craftsmanship, Anomaly, on Frehley’s own Bronx Born Records, ties together the original KISS axeman’s trailblazing past, present and future.
Scheduled for liftoff on September 15, Frehley’s fifth solo album—following 1978’s self-titled classic, 1987’s Frehley’s Comet, 1988’s Second Sighting and 1989’s Trouble Walkin’—will be distributed by Sony/Red with Rocket Science providing a full label service platform. To commemorate the event, Gibson has created their second Ace Frehley signature Les Paul guitar—the first one (in 1997) was one of the best-selling signature models of all time.
From his captivating persona as KISS’ “Spaceman” to his infamous Halloween ‘79 interview with Tom Snyder (uproariously commemorated in an iTunes exclusive “The Return of Space Bear”), Frehley is one of the most beloved personalities in rock ‘n’ roll. He’s the man who designed KISS’ iconic logo; he delivered an all-time stadium classic in “New York Groove”; and he continues to stay relevant and beloved by the likes of sludge-metal kingpins the Melvins and popping up onstage at Madison Square Garden to rock with the likes of Pearl Jam.
As for the lengthy delay between solo albums, “I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he confesses. “I had to put the record on the back burner when I reunited with KISS. But I knew it would be important, so I kept listening to my old records to try to capture what the fans like.”
Sure enough, Frehley graciously offers listeners clever nods to his solo work throughout Anomaly. On closing epic “Fractured Quantum,” the fourth song in his “Fractured” series, the guitarist recaptures a particularly cool effect from 1978’s original “Fractured Mirror” with a dexterous display of pickup acrobatics. The debut single “Outer Space” features a thunderous guitar riff, and on his personal favorite, “Genghis Khan,” Frehley meticulously tweaked the reverb no less than six times with mixing guru Anthony Focx, employed the vocal talents of Meat Loaf’s daughter Pearl Aday, then goes out with the bang of a searing wah-wah solo.
The months of hard work were facilitated by the steady studio hands of Focx & Marti Frederiksen. Both contributed to mixing and mastering, while Frederiksen briefly took the reins from Frehley, who produced Anomaly, to turn the knobs for “Fox on the Run.”
“Analog recording is kind of blown by the wayside; I learned so much from Anthony and Marti about working in digital,” Frehley says, concluding with a grin, “This album has some heavy, heavy songs.”
I hope your holidays were great and I hope you reflect back on what a great year it was being Ace Frehley in '09 and the new year should be even better for you!! Keep in touch and visit my page often and check out my blog on Sonic Boom vs. Anomaly and my BIG venue blog. Take care my good friend.
Just picked up Anomaly from Best Buy and I'm quite impressed. Only you could make an old song from Sweet sound good, Ace. Keep rockin' and don't give up on the idea of playing with KISS again. The Reunion tour was one of the only things about music in the 1990's that didn't suck.
Hello Ace Frehley's okay with you? I am a great fan of his Solos! I also read in a news that you want to come to Brazil in 2010 for the album "Anomaly", is this true? If you do come, will make presentations in Rio de Janeiro? Until Someday ...
Your show in londonn on the 17th was absolutely amazing!!! Me (George Pickering - Bass/Vocal) and my guitarist (Tom Parrish) came all the way up from the countryside to see you in London and i've got to say, it was great! It turned out that the concert ended so late that we had missed the last train back down to the country. So we, two fourteen year-olds with less than £15 ($23) between us and nowhere to go, were stranded in one of the world's biggest cities and it was snowing! But it didn't matter because we saw such a great show, you rocked!
GERMANY IS GOOD naz?ii? no yaaz?i? no...why is ss??? like of from 1933-43? you know from the 1st album...bla diam try to contro fans with bla magic. thats when germ was bad from 33-43...I heard in WW III Italy, Germany, USA, Uk VS the mid east.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! ACE!!! I did 20 songs ON MY KEYBOARD synth today with my HANDS THAT PLAYED THE MUSIC I COMPOSED.