I.O.U.

About

<i>I.O.U.</i> was not the first glimpse of what Allan Holdsworth could unleash on the guitar, but it was his proper debut as a leader, not counting the unauthorized <i>Velvet Darkness</i> from 1976. The mysterious guitar hero from Bradford, West Yorkshire—vocally championed by Eddie Van Halen—had made a splash with The New Tony Williams Lifetime, as well with as prog-rockers Gong, Soft Machine, U.K., and Bill Bruford, among other. It made sense, then, for <i>I.O.U.</i>—which functions as both an album title and a band name—to include a vocalist: Paul William, Holdsworth’s mate from the short-lived prog-rock outfit Tempest, and a former member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreaker. Williams sings on four track, augmenting a killer trio that also features bassist Paul Carmichael and drummer Gary Husband. Released in 1982, <i>I.O.U.</i> includes a group of instrumentals—"Where is One,” “Letters of Marque,” and “Shallow Sea”—that would remain in Holdsworth’s repertoire for decade. “Temporary Fault,” meanwhile, features Holdsworth on violin; the resulting sound is unlike the SynthAxe he’d incorporate a few years later. And the leadoff track, “The Things You See (When You Haven’t Got Your Gun),” is actually an amalgam of two pieces from a little-known 1980 duo project with pianist Gordon Beck: “The Things You See” and “At the Edge” (Holdsworth himself sings on the latter, sounding a bit like Paul Williams). To hear the <i>I.O.U.</i> version is to look into Holdsworth’s compositional notebook. .

via Apple Music

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