Look out any window and something will be getting dug up in Glasgow. This time it is the instrumental album with the man behind this particular revival being up and coming guitarist Fraser John Lindsay.
Now, our Mr Lindsay shows a not inconsiderable dexterity here but there also is no denying he is a very mannered player so one has to assume that his tongue was firmly in his cheek when he called his album “Melodic Mayhem”. He chooses to avoid fretboard pyrotechnics and instead takes deadly aim at mood creation and, whilst not entirely successful, he has succeeded in making an album that many rock fans in their twilight years will enjoy. Whether setting a solidly mellow groove (“SWB”), respraying Herb Alpert as a rock hero (“Flamenco Blues”), doing the Snowy White thang (“16 Bar Bliss”) or raising the bar right up with the elegant “Sad Theme”, Mr Lindsay executes his task with little fuss and almost clinical efficiency.
Perhaps as the result of squeezing in 15 tracks, a good few of the songs do suffer as a result of being faded out just as they were getting interesting. It is, no doubt, an artistic choice to do such things but it did cause me to wonder if Mr Lindsay actually knew how to finish a song.
That quibble aside, “Melodic Mayhem” nonetheless represents the first step on what should be a promising musical career for Fraser John Lindsay