Rob Sbar comes straight at the listener with a barrage of speedy fusion on Wagon Wheels and Atom Bombs. Sbar has an unusual style that consists of clean-toned jazz phrasings that articulate the underlying progressions and gritty-toned leadwork that blazes over the fretboard traversing scales, sweeps, and raucous patterns. Sbar's aggressive playing is built around his speedy fret mauling that he has obvious troubles restraining. The compositions explore some interesting harmonization with the chordal underpinnings and soloing that has a sense of rawness about it. The soloing seems to be divergent to the underlying chord phrasings in places, but the blazing speed is so distracting that the listener might not notice. This aspect of the speedy guitar is reminiscent of some of Shawn Lanes exploratory type music with Hellborg and Sipe. The exploration, outside tonality, unusual rhythms, and shredding guitar work are combined in a tenuous balance that pushes the envelope of fusion and abstract jazz. But, there is some coherency to the composition that puts this all into a palatable frame that binds it with a perceivable musical vision. Sbar incorporates some harmonious themes into the leadwork that strike some contrast to the subduing shred that dominates his playing.

Wagon Wheels and Atom Bombs from The Rob Sbar Noesis is a divergence from reality into the nebulous dimensions of abstract, progressive fusion. Though the accessibility of this music may not be digestible by the mainstream listener, the advanced and progressive musical ideas that Sbar explores may be of interest to followers of progressive fusion of the abstract variety. Sbar has a very interesting style that fuses shred guitar pyrotechnics, abstract harmonization, unusual chord progressions, complex arrangements, and challenging metres that together demonstrate his capabilities with advanced guitar and progressive fusion. This is not easy listening for certain, but a technical audience may appreciate where Sbar has gone with his unique brand of abstract fusion.