Chris Forsyth and the Solar Motel Band - Intensity Ghost

Of course, it should actually be a treat. From vintage folk-rock a la Fairport Convention - with Richard Thompson in charge of the fretboard-milking - to the proto-punk six-string odysseys of Television's Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, the ability to put advanced skills in fretboard acrobatics in the service of dynamics, tension and melody has been an inseparable part of many of the finer achievements littered around the back alleys of rock 'n' roll. On a shared mission with such US contemporaries as William Tyler and Steve Gunn (Intensity Ghost provides the only serious challenge to Way Out Weather's hitherto unrivalled status as the 'guitar album' of the year), it's these unfairly cult-orientated heroes, as opposed to the headline-grabbing dullards who routinely top the greatest guitarist ever listings despite audibly struggling to conjure any joy from their dazzling way around the scales, that Forsyth bows down to.

Forsyth and the three-piece Solar Motel Band do so with a resistance-battering flair that could convert a passionate believer in the superiority of ambient sounds to the fuzzed-up church of electric guitar, and render a stern believer that any song over three minutes long is wasting its and our time to see the light and believe in the unrivalled potency of extended bouts of jamming. As with Way Out Weather and Gunn (apologies for going on about a record this review isn't about, but the parallels are too clear to ignore), Intensity Ghost marks a giant step forward for its author. 2012's Solar Motel Band was a fine, fine record, but this one, with its predecessor’s titular ensemble now a steady accompaniment for the Philadelphia-based guitarist's bouts of melodic noodling, is a bolder, stronger and more varied. From the frenzied riffing of the title track to the disembodied impressionism of “Paris Song”, each of the five tracks explores a dramatically different side to the band's range. Crucially, to ensure we're now sailing in waters of interest to the non-guitar fanatic congregation, it's melodically richer, too. Sure, there are flurries of notes and folks unleashing what can only be described as face-melting solos, but Intensity Ghost is, despite being entirely instrumental, home to some strong songwriting (check out the gradually ascending, graceful glide of “I'm Not Waiting”) and, although some tunes stretch out near-endlessly, dynamic performances (witness the muscular, fatback chooglin' of “Yellow Square” and the white-knuckle rock action of the title track).

In short, its rock 'n' roll, only of a wordless, exploratory and open-minded variety. Turn it up to 11.