VELVET DARKNESS

Despite some obvious sound quality problems, I actually like this recording quite a bit. It sounds not so much like an Allan Holdsworth album, but more like a band brought together to sound like the Mahvishnu Orchestra. And they do a pretty good job of it. The opening track, Good Clean Filth is the most Mahavishnu-like on the album, and it helps that sound to have Narada Michael Walden on drums. Elsewhere, Holdsworth's violin also adds to the MO type sound. A few excellent acoustic pieces also showcase Holdsworth's skills. And while his distinctive compositional style is not yet developed here, the songs are interesting enough.

BTW, the Epic CD I have from 1990 has five bonus tracks, alternate takes of some of the songs on the album, totalling over twenty minutes.

I know it doesn't sound like classic Holdsworth, but I like it more than most of his Synthaxe works.