WARDENCLYFFE TOWER

To my mind, Wardenclyffe Tower ushers in a trio of late style albums, along with the stylistically congruent Hard Hat Area and The Sixteen Men of Tain. The Wardenclyffe album is mostly Holdsworth-penned. The exceptions are Steve Hunt's very enjoyable "Dodgy Boat" and Chad Wackerman's less developed "Questions." You get to sample three drum giants - Wackerman plays four of the tunes, Gary Husband gets two tunes, and an unleashed Vinnie Colaiuta even gets a solo spot on "Against the Clock." Jimmy Johnson is the bassist for the whole album, which is great - Holdsworth's chords seem more corporeal when Johnson is helping to define them. Sadly, he very rarely played anything off of this album live and maybe that's why this amazing set of tunes seems to fly under the radar.