After two solid album with vocals, comes Resistor‘s only all instrumental album called The Secret Island Band Jams. It was released in 2011 and contains both improvised and composed tracks. Before I continue, I wanted those that have the two Resistor albums to know that The Secret Island Band Jams aren’t leftovers. They’re all original tracks that sum up where the band is at in 2011.
Over the years I‘ve slowly come to enjoy instrumental albums, some more than others. So when I heard Resistor was to have a fully instrumental album, I was like “bring it on”. In the past they had some instrumental tracks on the self titled debut (2008) and Rise (2010) albums so they were no stranger to the instrumental world.
My favorites of the “Improvised“ tracks are “Voyage 7” (4:01), “Santa Anna” (8:15) and longest one of them all, “Double Ascent” (15:07), which shows the band‘s strengths in being able to create something out of the blue. I would have loved to hear more instrumentals like these three.
My favorites of the “Composed“ tracks are “Picadora” (5:00) and “Quirk” (3:47) which both shows the strengths of the band in being able to compose a song and refine it.
This instrumental album has grown on me and quickly has become one of my favorite albums from 2011. I truly can’t wait for what’s next with this band. I hope they surprise us with something unexpected. If you like instrumental albums and have enjoyed Resistor’s music so far, then I can highly recommend this album.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on May 25th, 2011
