Reviewed by Thomas Pizzola

Sweat Hog is the largely instrumental, rock fusion offering by the group Ronnie Neuhauser's Styrocultural Antidote, which features Neuhauser on guitar, along with Mike Perez on bass and Fran Merante on drums. The CD serves up the trio's free form explorations, which of course means plenty of Neuhauser's fiery guitar playing throughout the nine cuts. The wah-wah pedal gets hammered on tracks such as "Face" and "Mojoson", while "Liberation From The Jackal", is a medium-to-slow number which allows for heavy, melodically evocative and freaked-out guitar lines that slap the listener upside the head. Finally, "Equinox At Chichen Itza" sports a cool early '70s hard rock vibe before laying out the high tech improvs. If you like your fusion improvisational and ambitious, check out Ronnie Neuhauser's body of work.

Ronnie formerly headed up the rock/funk outfit Grooveyard, which received recognition in the New Haven Advocate's Grand Band Slam/Sounds Of New Haven. His song "Dr. Sus" took first place in the 1999 Songwriter's Association of Washington's Mid-Atlantic Song Contest. His 1999 concept CD "Congregation Against Styrocultural Brain Damage" was a recipient of a Preston Foundation grant.



Neuhauser is working on a slew of compositions, some of which are putting to use his own music theory, which he has been developing for a few years now. He has many recordings scheduled for release in the future, including a new instrumental CD entitled "Stupid Like Cow", his opera "Gangr'ear" and another CD of complete madness entitled "It's All About The Grass", which should bring to light Neuhauser's depth and adventurousness of composition. on Neuhauser, the guitarist for Styrocultural Antidote, doesn't speak much while on stage. Instead, he lets his guitar speak for him. And it speaks in a variety of voices, from the syncopated jargon of funk to the fiery language of a blistering solo and even in the almost regal tones of a twisted waltz. It's a highly evolved version of non-verbal communication that was not lost on the crowd. In fact, the band, which is also composed of bassist Mike Perez and drummer Fran Marante lets the music speak for them. There are no vocals. Instead, the band plays and lets the music communicate their message, which is one of pure musical bliss.