Daddo

Daddo (full name Damir Daddo Oreskovich) was born in the town of Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina. As a child he studied classical guitar and piano. In his youth he matured as a guitarist by listening to the likes of Gary Moore, Richie Blackmore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert among others. When the war broke out in Bosnia, Daddo was determined to continue his musical aspirations. He practiced by candlelight in his basement learning even more. After high school, he entered the Music Academy at Sarajevo as a Music Theory major playing piano because they did not have a guitar department. In his second year, friends from Boston encouraged him to apply to the world-renowned Berklee College of Music and study electric guitar. Daddo was accepted receiving a scholarship in 1999.

While attending Berklee he studied under Joe Stump (Reign Of Terror, and solo work). Stump lauds Daddo, 'He's been my top student for quite awhile now and also one of the strongest rock/metal players I've worked with ...' Daddo graduated in 2004 with a degree in Guitar Performance. Daddo now lives in Chicago where he is also composer, recording engineer and producer. 'The Other Side' is Daddo's debut album.

To say that Daddo's 'The Other Side' nothing short of astonishing, may be supreme understatement. I liked everything I heard on this work. The album is rich with fine fret work, imaginative composition, and perfectly appointed references to Daddo's Balkan musical heritage. Daddo himself describes the music as 'metal meets progressive rock, symphonic, shred, and ... Balkan music.' And you get all this. The whole work is simply well-crafted and beautiful. And Daddo did all this in his living room using his personal computer.

You really need to hear this album to believe it. If there is one song on the album that accomplishes his purpose in style it's 'Emina.' This is an amazing and wondrous work based upon a traditional Bosnian tune and where traditional eastern European instruments are found. If you want shred, look no further than the title track 'The Other Side,' 'Red Line Express,' or 'The Temple.' Then there's the extraordinary 'Flash Art' where prog rock is definitely blended with some serious shredding. And do I hear a subtle jazz influence early on? Could be. Another phenomenal track is 'Parody Of Sound' which is light and breezy like good AOR. Daddo expert performance makes it soar.

Daddo's 'The Other Side' a magnificent accomplishment for this young and extremely talented guitarist. It was a pure joy to listen to. Daddo should be recognized for his creativity and passion as the music is dazzling. I would encourage you to visit his site where you can listen to the complete songs. Better, I encourage you to purchase the album at guitar9.com; click here to go there now. Strongly recommended!


In Short

'The Other Side' is the debut album from Daddo (his middle name), another supremely talented eastern European born guitarist (remember Emir Hot). Daddo's music blends shredding metal with progressive rock, all within symphonic and traditional ethnic music. From beginning to end the music amazes and pleases the ears. Great stuff! Buy the album now at Guitar Nine: click the icon below.


Direct link:
http://www.dangerdog.com/reviews_2008/daddo-the-other-side.html - www.dangerdog.com

You can hear all songs from this CD at www.ddomusic.com

Official Guitar Nine Records Artist site:
http://www.guitar9.com/theothersidedaddo.html

www.myspace.com/daddo
- Daddo

In some parallel universe, perhaps what Plato referred to as the Realm of Forms, there’s this great mansion loaded with the original versions of every great guitar shredder of the Rock/Metal persuasion having a festive event not all that dissimilar from what passes for a social gathering in this mundane reality of ours. This particular party is a bit more exclusive, as it is being hosted by the man who reinvented whaling away on a Stratocaster, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, and thus consists mostly of Neo-classical and Progressive Metal oriented maestros.



Off to one side we have PATRICK RONDAT and ARJEN LUCASSEN going on about how esoteric their next albums are going to be and toasting their higher philosophical endeavors with dry Martinis. Over at the bar MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO is pounding down a Guinness and throwing some semi-original pickup lines at MAXINE PETRUCCI, CARINA ALFIE and KATRINA JOHANNSEN, all of who are just tipsy enough to be amused by his remarks about how fast his hands are. A little further down the bar, JENNIFER BATTEN and Katherine “KAT” Thomas are waiting for host and self-appointed bartender Yngwie to finish mixing their drinks and chuckling at BATIO’s perpetual swinger nature. TIMO TOLKKI is at the far corner babbling on after 8 bottles of Smirnoff about how much playing live sucks while ROLAND GRAPOW and Henjo Richter try to act interested, both hoping like hell that Yngwie doesn’t hear Timo’s remarks so they won’t have to break up a nasty fist fight. Out in the courtyard MICHAEL ROMEO is practicing his lead calisthenics on his axe with a portable amp while STEPHAN FORTE looks on in amazement.



Suddenly a newcomer to the festivities enters the room, carrying his trusty guitar and a copy of his newly completed debut album. Immediately Yngwie stops what he’s doing and introduces the other members of this society of shredders to their latest pledge Daddo Oreskavich, sporting a goatee and a look of conviction and confidence, despite the strong shortage of fellow Eastern European members to this elite fold. Timo Tolkki makes some off-the-cuff remark about how DADDO’s facial hair has already cost him points in his opinion, which inspires a dirty look from RICK RENSTROM, who just got back from the kitchen along with LUCA TURILLI with a couple massive trays of orderves. Before things start to get out of hand, Thorbjörn Englund uses his good Swedish diplomacy to inform Renstrom that Timo has had a few too many, while urging his inspiration, superior and compatriot Yngwie to get things rolling before Timo says something really stupid.



Without further delay, DADDO cues up his CD and the show commences just in time for JOHN PETRUCCI, MARTY FRIENDMAN, Herman Li, Norifumi Shima and Carljohan Grimmark to make their way into the crowd of onlookers. All in congress listen with the utmost scrutiny that can be expected from a group of buzzing guitar blazers, occasionally making references to familiar sounds, while simultaneously being surprised at the proficiency of the chops and freshness of the composition style on display. JENNIFER BATTEN immediately takes note of the brilliant marriage of Brain May’s melodic and anthem like character with the agitated tone characteristic of MICHAEL ROMEO’s playing on display during the album’s opener “Ascension”. Romeo himself concurs with Batten’s assessment and also joins his protégé STEPHAN FORTE in praising the Neo-Baroque, semi-Gothic tendencies of “The Other Side (Ab Aeterno)”, which also makes a fine use of backing choirs and dense atmospheric qualities.



As the album progresses every member of this elite club finds something of themselves in this remarkable opus, while noting that they’d never really tried an approach quite like this before. Rondat and Lucassen note the streams of rapid scale ascensions and constant sectional development of “Red Line Express” and find some of their own occasional references to jazz devices at work within it. MARTY FRIEDMAN then pipes in his approval for the light-hearted and melodic “Princess”, which also wins the praise of ROLAND GRAPOW for its regular usage of pinched harmonic wails at the appropriate moments. The follow up song “The Temple” instantly wins over JOHN PETRUCCI with its rapid paced scales, while KATRINA JOHANNSEN shows preference to the easy going groove behind it and the smoothly painted keyboard backdrop. Head maestro Yngwie and MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO, who usually isn’t phased by wild fits of rapid scales, both shout their approvals towards “Biistreak” for all of the interesting exotic instrumental additives from the East, to speak nothing for the lucid quality of DADDO’s lead tone.



Although expecting very little of their own experimental mixes of progressive rock and shred in this performance, LUCA TURILLI and TIMO TOLKKI are suddenly taken in by the symphonic qualities of “Emina”. Luca notes a slower version of his own solo work complete with mandolin tracks, while Timo finds the easy going ballad qualities that he always preferred to his work with STRATOVARIUS, forgetting about his original objection to DADDO’s goatee momentarily. Likewise, Herman Li was feeling a bit left out until he heard all the crazy fret board noises and other unorthodox sound manipulations heard on parts of “Flash Art”, which also wins over Katherine Thomas with its wild speed picked sections, making her remember her own glory days in the late 80s. JOHN PETRUCCI and JENNIFER BATTEN welcome the easy going dance feel of “Parody Of Sound”, while Carljohan Grimmark and Norifumi Shima get the symbolism of the title as DADDO has successfully turned a mundane mix of Salsa beats and Polynesian sounds into something conducive to their own scale and sweep picking happy method of putting a dozen notes into the duration of 2 seconds.



As the performance draws to a close with the restful, easygoing ballad “Boston In The Rain”, the tribunal of guitar gods and goddesses take little time in rendering their unanimous verdict. Yngwie personally comes over to congratulate DADDO while giving an extensive anecdote about his own evolution as a player and how proud he is to welcome this bright new talent to their community. Through it all, the stalwart Eastern Block shredder maintains his stoic demeanor, even taking a flirty wink from Carina Alfie in stride. And so a new guitar legend has been born and added to the hall of 6 string fame at Mt. Olympus, bringing forth good tidings and an amazing debut to the faithful of planet Earth. May his future offerings be many and his career long.

(Online September 5, 2008) - Metal Observer

'The Other Side' is the debut album from Bosnian born, Chicago based guitar virtuoso Daddo Oreskovich, and the product of 24 years work as a musician.
The first thing to note is that Daddo has a similar sound to a number of other virtuosos out there. An unfortunate fact which will probably lead to a number of people dismissing Daddo without giving him a fair chance. Something I was almost guilty of myself. But intending to give the guy a break, I pressed on, and am VERY glad I did. ‘The Other Side’ is an absolute gem of an album.
The thing that impressed me most about the album was it’s sheer diversity. Very few of the
tracks on the album sound similar. For instance, track 2, ‘The Other Side’, is an orchestral accompanied guitar piece on a truly grand scale. ‘Red Line Express’ is a light, upbeat track, (with a couple of astounding bass lines, but more on that later) which, as far as I can tell, was inspired by a train. But the diversity doesn’t end there, as we have a slightly heavier track with a Middle Eastern vibe (Biistreak), a slower, much more melodic piece in ‘Boston in the Rain’ and the frenzied ‘The Temple’ which sacrifices rhythm for complexity. (Something I’m personally not too fussed about, but is listenable regardless.)
While Daddo’s astounding guitar playing is obviously the focal point of the album, I feel I have to note a couple of other instruments too. As I mentioned earlier, Red Line Express features a great bass line. There’s also a section in ‘Princess’ played on a B3 Organ, and a couple of the tracks feature a Bouzouki. I make note of these for the simple fact that all the aforementioned instruments were played by Daddo himself. And as if that weren’t enough, there’s also room for orchestras, chorus chants and brass sections which Daddo drafted in just to give this album something a little extra.
While I thoroughly loved the album, I do feel I have to voice one or two complaints. I found the track ‘Flash Art’ a little disappointing, considering what had come before it. (Though I understand Flash Art was some kind of collaboration, so that may go partway towards explaining why.) But the biggest complaint I have is that most of the tracks, and the album itself, came to too abrupt an end. Many tracks simply stopped when it seemed they could have gone on that little bit longer, and the album came to a close just after 38 minutes.
Minor complaints aside, 'The Other Side' is an amazing debut, and those who can look past the fact that Daddo’s guitar sounds vaguely reminiscent of others are in for a treat with this album. To anyone who appreciates guitar artistry, ‘The Other Side’ comes highly recommended. www.ddomusic.com/index.html - live4metal.com

The Other Side is the debut disc from Bosnian shredder Daddo Oreskovich. According to the bio on his webpage Daddo spent most of his teen years in his basement practicing guitar by candlelight while war ravaged his country. It seems those years in the basement have not gone to waste as Daddo delivers more tasty licks than a Tootsie Pop. However, this is MetalReview.com not Shredreview.com, and while Daddo does flirt with some metallic riffs on occasion, The Other Side is no Screaming for Vengeance. Those of you looking for music to induce some head-banging fury can stop reading now; this record is not for you. If instrumental guitar albums are your thing, then by all means read on.

If I were to describe Daddo’s sound in one word, it would be majestic. Daddo’s bell like tone and heavy classical influence brings to mind the master of the Sky Guitar, and god father of shred Uli Jon Roth, while his ear for a catchy melody is reminiscent of Joe Satriani. Daddo is no slouch in the speed department to be sure, but his focus seems to be on making music rather than showing off and this makes The Other Side far more listenable than your average wank-fest.

Daddo works with a fairly diverse palette of musical styles: The title track utilizes some metallic chugging coupled with some choir vocals. “Red Line Express” is a Satriani like rocker. “Ermina” features some acoustic guitar with a flamenco vibe. “Blistreak” is an eastern flavored track featuring some sitar work. Gentle closer “Boston in the Rain” features some jazzy clean guitar.

Daddo recorded The Other Side in his home studio and he did a fine job as it is on the whole a great sounding record. However, it is quite obvious from the sparse and rudimentary rhythms on this record that Daddo is using a drum machine. Also, Daddo relies heavily on keyboards for his backing tracks which makes the record sound a bit like new age music at times. I think a real backing band would put more vitality into his tracks and better compliment his fiery fret work.

The diversity of styles on The Other Side coupled with Daddo’s passionate and tasteful playing make for an engaging listen. As a guitar player, I have purchased my share of shred albums; sadly, most of them are gathering dust. However, I feel I may revisit The Other Side from time to time. - metalreview.com