Gary Lucas

This four-track EP documents several solo concerts given in Amsterdam by guitarist Gary Lucas. He opens with a piece of his own entitled "Rise Up to Be," a fairly virtuosic, if not terribly interesting, composition that does make good use of the Fender Stratocaster's unique tone. Lucas' solo arrangement of Abdullah Ibrahim's "Bra Joe from Kilimanjaro" is more intriguing -- he plays a bluesy riff and leaves it to repeat endlessly through an echo unit, then plays the main theme and solos, shimmeringly, above it. He almost brings off a version of Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" (the layers of echo and delay leave it sounding messy, which is a problem when you're covering Kraftwerk), and then pulls out a National steel guitar to play a '30s-era, vintage, Chinese pop tune entitled "The Songstress on the Edge of Heaven." Interestingly, this is the most enjoyable and fully-realized track on the album. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide