JOHN MCLAUGHLIN & MAHAVISHNU: ADVENTURES IN RADIOLAND

Is this John's ego or pocketbook speaking? I mean, does he think tricking the consumer into believing that he is reviving the Mahavhishnu Orchestra come from his financial instability, record company pressures, or real belief that he is offering something as game-changing as he did with The Inner Mounting Flame, Birds of Fire, and Apocalypse?

Gone are the days of mountain-top launched songs of fire and brimstone; here are the controlled amd sometimes mellow and/or simple soundscapes and products of the New Age computer-generated techno-robots. Yes, the boys can play, but how much of it is "real" and how much digitally manipulated? (Yes: even the saxophone.) For me the highlight of John's two 1980s "Mahavishnu" albums is the discovery of Swedish bass phenom, Johans Hellborg: on this album Jonas shows just how far he's come (and very quickly, too, I might add); the downside is the presence of saxophone and over-technologized keyboards and other "sounds." I find Danny Gottlieb's work here far more interestimg (despite the digital and computer enhancements) than anything he ever did with Pat Metheny.

I do not begrudge any artist the opportunity and choice to experiment, change, and grow--and the music here is actually not bad, even if it is a little over-technologized. Most of the songs on this album bears little or no resemblance to anything the Orchestra did in the 1970s; if anything there is more in common here with Bill Bruford's new project, Earthworks, as well as World Music projects like Special EFX, Strunz & Farah and Acoustic Alchemy, but also Shadowfax, Jeff Lorber, Fourplay, The Rippingtons, Pat Metheny, Allan Holdsworth, and even some of the 1980s work of Al Di Meola and Chick Corea. All in all, it's nice music, sometimes a little too saccharine (or would "aspartame" be the more current and, therefore, appropriate sweetener in 1986?) for my tastes. John still knows how to pick excellent (and often new, upcoming, and/or unheard of) talent.

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