Submitted Photo This is the cover of Dunkirk native Joel Maslakowski’s new album.

Dunkirk native Joel Maslakowski is D.I.Y in overdrive.

Specializing in D.I.Y Mad Audio Science, a skill set that he’s been developing over his 40 odd years of making home recordings, Joel can best be described as a Tone Rat.

From a childhood of soldering Radio Shack parts into old Big Muff Fuzzs, to later in life learning Pro Logic, Joel’s pursuit of professional sounds “Tone” in his recordings bely the skill set he also developed as a songwriter.

Primarily wielding a custom-made Stratocaster that is joined to a now “vintage” Roland GRS 8 Guitar Synth thrown through various analog gear, Joel invokes soundscapes that enchant the listeners’ ears, creating a solid foundation of vintage sounds to wrap his melodic lead vocal ear-worms around.

No genre is safe from his artistic hands as he blends and weaves styles and textures that make his music entirely original as he also plays every instrument on all of his compositions.

The album, “Yesterday’s Hero,” is a smorgasbord of vintage, yet modern 1970s Classic Juke Box Rock where snippets of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Badfinger, to name a few, show their influence in his compositions.

The album is available on iTunes, Amazon.com and most online digital retailers. It can also be found on the Spotify streaming service and AppleMusic too.