J.A.M. is the latest release from UK based label Liquid Note Music. Despite being a relatively new indie label they have so far got a reputation (at least from virtuosity one!) of releasing quality guitar instrumental albums, J.A.M. is no exception to this trend I am pleased to report.

Touching on equal parts rock, jazz, blues and funk this is 9 tracks full of great guitar work from Joel Rivard, Aleesandro Benvenuti and Milan Polak - who if I am being perfectly honest I had never heard of before this release! Does this matter? Well no as J.A.M. is full of great grooves, solos that are suited to the track rather than the soloist desire to show his bag of tricks. Despite mentioning the words funk and jazz above rest assured guitar fans that this more along the lines of those genres that Satriani or Greg Howe would dish out.

What I particularly like is that each guitarist generally has his own style and does not try to outflash the previous solo. Joel Rivards work brings to mind that of Shawn Lane and Satriani, mostly due to his silky smooth legato technique. Milan Polak's approach is also home to a strong legato technique but with a little more shred in him, which leaves Alessandro Benvenuti in whom I hear comparisons with Greg Howe and a little Allan Holdsworth. These 3 style merge extremely well and add a nice dose of originality to the album.

The Usual Unusual opens the album with a mono sounding classic jazz swing vibe before kicked into a monster groove and a big loud and proud production. This track is dedicated to the memory of Shawn Lane and is home to great melodies that set the standard for the rest of the album. 2 Sides Of The Same Trouble is a superb example of the interplay between the 3 guitarists. Lydian Field is quite excellent with an extremely strong structure and melody, again quite Satriani and has a cool outro vamp based on the lydian scale which brings about the song title, 8 mins of pure class.

Hot Room is jazz fusion done Allan Holdsworth style, superb playing throughout. Back On The Track is home to a great groove and some of the flashiest playing on the album. Transcendence has an uplifiting vibe that is quite Eric Johnson sounding to these ears. The track features a lot of use of the mixolydian mode which probably explains the Johnson vibes, probably my favourite cut on the album. S.L.O.W. is much more ethereal at the start with some female mood vocals before leading into some pretty smoking soloing from Alessandro Benvenuti. Perfect Angel is based around a rather simple melody that evolves as the track progresses, the production here is especially strong. General Relativity Jam closes the album, sadly I do not feels its quite up with the quality elsewhere as its as the name suggests more Jamming bases and occassionally does loose a little focus.

J.A.M. have chalked up a victory in the instrumental releases of 2004 category. Great playing within classic strong structures and home to an ace production for this genre. Whilst not breaking any new ground in the instrumental guitar field, J.A.M. does provide an hours worth of exciting and captivating guitar work and for that reason alone comes highly recommended.