Allan Holdsworth is more than a virtuoso guitarist; he’s also an original stylist whose influence can be heard on many recent recordings in diverse musical contexts, including the top 40. It may be some kind of irony that Holdsworth remains an unsung hero whose disciples have enjoyed greater commercial success than he. On the other hand, it has to be said that those who have copied him have only grafted certain elements of his style onto their own music, while Holdsworth has rarely deviated from the pursuit of his particularly eccentric and esoteric vision. As we can hear from this record, his remove to sunny LA from London some four or five years ago has done nothing to mellow his potent individuality.
Holdsworth’s unnatural talents and peerless technique matured with Soft Machine and Tony Williams’ Lifetime, but his music was always informed too by the English art-rock school epitomised by King Crimson, Yes, Genesis and the like, and Metal Fatigue reflects all these influences in every department – vocals, lyrics and composition. The record also has much in common with Holdsworth’s 1984 Warner Bros album, Road Games.
Most people are going to buy this record for the electric guitar solos (the most typical and lyrical is on Devil), but they may also enjoy the precise heavy-metal chording that opens Metal Fatigue, the gut-string work on Home, or the lush symphonic effects that remind us of Frederick Delius, that other Bradford-born rhapsodist.
For me, I still have a feeling that Holdsworth fared best with Bill Bruford and in those improvised sessions with John Stevens and Gordon Beck in the seventies. Now he’s in the States, someone should get him together with Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland and Chick Corea and press the go button.
Discography
Metal Fatigue; Home; Devil Take The Hindmost; Panic Station (19.27) – The Un-Merry-Go-Round; In The Mystery (17.55)
Allan Holdsworth (g); Jimmy Johnson, Gary Willis (b); Chad Wackerman, Gary Husband, Mac Hine (d); Alan Pasqua (kyb); Paul Korda, Paul Williams (v). Recorded c.1985.
(Enigma 2002-1)
