THE SECRET ISLAND BAND JAMS

Resistor started out as the jam-band of a couple of colleagues that went loose during the lunchbreaks. That Resistor, after the release of two excellent studio albums, now comes with a largely improvised jam album is not really something completely surprising, considering their origins.

However, the quality of the material is! It's hard to believe that 6 out of the 9 tunes on the album are complete improvisations but they are. According to the information in the booklet the 'songs' are the result of the careful editing of jam sessions that sometimes lasted more then half an hour. The result is an album that offers plenty of variation in moods, tunes and instrumentation. The emphasis in de improvisations seems to be on the interplay between the musicians instead of mindless selfindulgent soloing. Resistor manage to hold my attention for the full length of the CD.

Beside the 6 improvised tunes are also 3 composed instrumentals. They offer very nice tunefull breaks from the darker, more intense improvised work.

I am not going to say that 'The secret island band jams' is as good as the brilliant Rise or the debut. It is a completely different animal so we really should not compare. It is certainly a worthy addition to the Steve Unruh/Resistor discography.