ROAD GAMES

Allan Holdsworth has been everywhere; starting his career at young age, from Tempest to Tony Williams' Lifetime, Gong, Jean-Luc Ponty, Gordon Beck, Jack Bruce, Bill Bruford, UK and Soft Machine. I was not quite sure when I herd his guitar playing at first time - it's probably when he joined Bill Bruford with "One of A Kind" album. For sure, after that I chased whatever album he contributed as I really like his guitar playing style. In the mid- 1970s, he began showing some solo albums with "Velvet Darkness", "I.O.U" and "Road Games".

"Road Games" is an album that characterizes the music of Allan Holdsworth. The music style is slightly different with his contribution with other musician's albums or bands he contributed to. In here I can see the combination between soft guitar work that sounds like a keyboard and nice riffs. Some tracks featured here show the jazz-rock fusion style and some of tracks like "Road Games" blend the jazz-rock music with classic rock style - it's a bit odd but it's nice. The bass guitar player for this album is no stranger at all: Jeff Berlin who also collaborated with Bill Bruford's early albums. To me personally, enjoying this kind of music is good for a change - especially when I want to hear how the music turns from simple fusion to a complex arrangement with dynamic drumming by Chad Wackerman during transition.

If you love jazz-rock fusion music or you like varieties of guitar styles, you may enjoy this album. Composition-wise, this is an album with neat arrangement and good songwriting. Each individual song forms the album in cohesive way. Keep on proggin' .!