NOW HERE THIS (WITH THE 4TH DIMENSION)

Undoubtedly, John McLaughlin has been one of the finest guitar players, composers for nearly half a century. When he gets things right as with the original Mahavishnu Orchestra, with Shakti or some solo projects, not mentioning his works with Miles Davis and many others, or the acoustic trio works, he is just sensational.

Unfortunately, he is also prone to releasing some absolute duds here and there, but more about those perhaps some other time. Suffice to say "Now Here This" falls somewhere in the middle. The rating between 1-5 stars would leave this barely above 2.5 by Prog definitions.

This is not a "bad" album, but I couldn't call it good, either. Ordinary Fusion devoid of any excitements, or definite highlights.

I have "endured" this piece over three repeated runs and found it rather uninspiring and mediocre. Quirky and swift runs on the guitar are impressive alas, there is nothing much new there, more of a repetition of what's been recorded before. The rhythm section - consisting of talented musicians - are pretty much wasted here as they are only engaged to provide a backdrop to those familiar guitar notes. And the overuse of slap-bass by 2012 could be regarded as somewhat "passe".

With due regret, I could not recommend this work as a "must have".