4 little gems (131)

Lyrics: The only track on here that is not an original group composition ("California Dreamin' Written by John Phillips") is a munificent display of original style added to completely change a song into something that became the group's own. Holdsworthwould contribute most of the songwriting on here next to bassist Mick Skelly who was on bass, the whole group would chip in to make the song "Out of Conclusion."

"The Castle" starts off with the mellow but complex noodling that would arrive then goes into the magical vocals and smooth jazz groove with some floating ambiguous lyrics and the insane amount of minute playing flying across the fretboard is where I begin really love the album with soft interludes building intensity for smooth jazz drum rolls. "Out of Confusion" shows that Steve Robinson was an established guitarist, both him andHoldsworth were good but Holdsworth takes the main leads but they're able to do some bits in sync that are just amazing with the whole binary in sync guitar work that seems impossible. "California Dreamin'" is a more depressive and all instrumental as most of the tracks mainly focus more on instrumentals as it's all built around the structure of composing pieces that make way for the tremendous amount of admirable and tenacious guitar work. "The Witch" has great polished flawless vocals over mellow tones then goes into what the whole aim of the album is for with Holdsworth making his way around high speed notes and Steve Robinson always there to have his back with additional rhythms and his own little noodling bits. "Sweet Dry Biscuits" really has some impossibly fast progressions in all aspects but it's still smooth to follow but almost all the tracks have this same complex manner with some marvelous drum fills and overall constant endless insane amount of high speed fretwork and original chords. Of course Allan's guitar playing is simply marvelous, but the surprising element is his vocal performance, which is low key and suitable for this kind of Jazz oriented music. The material is experimental and interesting, shunning every cliches and convention. // 9

Overall Impression: In an era of Marshall stacks and Big Muffs with bands like the Jimi Hendrix Experience raging and newly forming hard rock acts, Holdsworth and fellowIgginbottom guitarist Steven Robinson favored intelligently-arranged tone clusters performed with no amp distortion and the treble rolled off in a beautiful subtle calm psychedelic manner. At times, as in Sweet Dry Biscuits, they sound like Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band if Sun Ra had been leading the group instead of Don Van Vliet. The revelation this reissue reveals is quite remarkable, Allan Holdsworth patently emerged from the womb with his unreasonable talent fully formed. A mere age of twenty-one in 1969, he was already capable of unleashing those dazzling note flurries of dancing fluency that still make fellow guitarists lob their Les Pauls into the Thames. The second revelation is that he had a wonderfully appealing singing voice while playing such amazing guitar progressions, his voice almost sounding like a younger version Chet Baker who had one of the smoothest and most angelic jazz vocals of all time, Holdsworth's singing can almost come close to that on here with furious but subtle playing to match. The band name may have led audiences to expect a brutalist combination in the Stackwaddy vein; nothing could have prepared them for the preoccupied, jazzy insularity and pin-drop quietude of "Igginbottom's Wrench" which is one of the highest points of this album making way for some of the best jazz rock soloing and music that dabbles more on the intellectual jazz side all done in finesse with late night moody atmospherics crossed with prog jazz. // 10