Clocking in at just under an hour, Regent is the 2010 instrumental release from UK guitarist Adam Moore. If you are unfamiliar with Adam's name and work, and are a fan of instrumental guitar music that offers something a bit more thoughtful and intelligent, you would be well advised to check out this wonderful showcase of his many talents.

The opener, Greasy and the Tube Monkeys features Adam playing not only guitar, but bass, drums and synth. He has a great touch on the guitar, as well as being quite a dab hand at bass - which features nicely on the whole CD - as well as drums and synth. The production is excellent and the whole CD sounds very accomplished on many levels. The opener gives you a taste of Adam's guitar style - often featuring harmonised guitar lines, whammy tricks and quirky, yet memorable melodies.

Track 2, The Projectionist, has a really striking guitar sound - it's reminiscent of the magnificent Ty Tabor - very tasty indeed!

Next up, Fuchsia is a more laid back piece that features some lovely bass playing - you'll hear delicate fretless slides, walking lines and harmonics that really add a nice atmosphere to the piece, as well as some dissonant chordal stabs, whammy bar dips and melody lines that bring to mind early Steve Vai - particularly his Flex-Able era work.

Track 3, one of the (even!) more quirkily named pieces, Let's Work in Retail is a beatiful piece of music that brings to mind a Japanese Garden, as well as reminding you of the work of Debussy. It shows a great depth and maturity of writing, and is quite a haunting, atmospheric track.

Purple Circles is a predominantly guitar track that features some nice Hendrix-meets-Vai changes, sliding octave lines, accomplished whammy use, and bluesy bends. According to the sleeve notes, this particular track was written some years ago in 1998, and I feel that perhaps the Vai influence here, is worn on sleeve, a touch too much. Adam's voice has certainly developed on the instrument since then, as is apparent from the other tracks on the CD.

Empress in the Beginning is a real stand out track for me, featuring some lovely alto sax playing from Lewis Mann, the guitar hear sounds jazzy - beautifully phrased and at times reminding you of Wes Montgomery. At other times, the "outside" notes catch you quite by surprise, but always lead you back to the track - it's skillfully done and shows a knowledge of harmony that's more developed than your average rock player.


Next up is Portals. You'll find many different techniques being used here - all to great effect over an ostinato. Tremelo picking, sweeps, speed picked lines, whammy tricks are all tools used not on their own, but within the context of the music.

Track 8 is Delicatessen. This is more of an up-tempo rock piece that features some fantastic sounding guitars. It's followed by perhaps another highlight track on the CD, Chocopocalypse Now. The main melody is a fleet fingered, interval skipped arpeggio:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaFUq0vdsCg&feature=related

The guitar sounds are again fantastic on this track - as is the playing! It's a distorted sound, yet it's very clear, full of harmonics and even has elements of Van Halen's famous "Brown Sound". It's a real treat for the ears.

Lo's Orchard is a lovely piece; haunting, with some beautiful changes - it wouldn't feel out of place as a score for film or television. It is a wonderful showpiece for Adam's compositional skills.

The penultimate track is The Knot Garden. Here a mix of odd time signatures, fretless bass, synth and soaring lead lines combine to produce a memorable, multi-layered sound over which Adam plays some quite stunning lead. There's plenty of space in the playing and it always feels like the music comes first, with technique being used as a vehicle for the notes. It's never technique for the sake of it.

Closing the CD is Light Angelic Mills, a sparse, almost ethereal piece with not a guitar in sight. Again, this piece wouldn't feel out of place as a soundtrack to a film - perhaps even something by David Lynch, such is it's other-wordly-like quality.


In summary, Regent is an extremely accomplished piece of work by a talented player and composer, that is sure to appeal to fans of all kinds of music - not just instrumental guitar. The CD itself, has some great artwork (by Christopher Skinner) and is a wonderfully rounded showcase of Adam's talents.

Be sure to check out Adam's site, his MySpace page and his music:

http://www.evesound.com/
http://www.myspace.com/evesoundadammoore

Trevor Beckett

Do Fret
June 2010