Musicology

Gary Boyle - Electric Glide 1978

Fans of mid-'70s King Crimson or early-'70s John McLaughlin could do a lot worse than land Gary Boyle's second solo album in their CD player or on their turntable. The ex-Isotope guitarist shows a thorough familiarity with the scales, and he (and the rest of the instrumentalists here) show a great affinity for 16th and 32nd notes, but the playing is always interesting enough and the shifting textures sufficiently diverse to hold one's interest across just over a half-hour -- the presence of guitarist Gary Moore, among others, doesn't hurt in that regard either. Electric Glide is very much of its era, steeped in mid-'70s jazz-rock, and there are a few moments that come perilously close to recalling the Mahavishnu Orchestra's Birds of Fire album -- luckily, he surrounds those intensely challenging moments with some more gently lyrical material, most notably the title track, which might have had a shot at some radio success, had it been a single. AMG.

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