I appreciate what guitarist and producer Brad Allen Williams is doing on œconomy, his first solo release for Colorfield. As a capable wingman for artists like Brittany Howard and rapper José James, Brad is adaptive and complimentary with his playing style- that is, when he is not cutting a blinding path with a solo, like a shooting star slicing through the clear night sky. He isn't playing second fiddle on this record though. He just because he has the skill to do so, doesn't mean he's looking to unleash his full, unbridled fury either. œconomy is an exercise in the understated. In planting the seeds of an abundant harvest in uncharted, and freshly tilled terrain. A lesson in listening and learning, for artist and audience, uncovering rare affordances, arcs and resonant circuits yet to be untangled from the scrub of the familiar. Much of œconomy has the aura of an obscure '70s progressive rock album or a transcendental jazz session recorded and then memory holed since the '60s, horizontally filtered with midnight feature, cathode ray illuminated sci-fi, and a stern strain of idealistic intrigue that will leave you fumbling like a child through the discovery of the harsh, invigorating details and tumultuous, liberating breath of the world a new. With œconomy has mustered an innovative force, whose surpluses are durable and difficult to exhaust.
More shades of delight are available from Colorfield Records.
