"We cut down the guitar solos," the legendary Minutemen sang of their minimalist approach to punk rock music, and in the genre of creative music guitarist Davey Williams practically says the same thing of his solo CD Antennae Road. As Williams puts it in the liner notes, he is "trying to get more mileage out of short term playing. Looking for that lyrical distortion of time perception that makes certain music seem longer than it is." Williams has been recording free improvisation since the early 1970's, and his oeuvre is consistently evinces his courage to allow the music go where it needs to, instead of relying on tried-and-true riffs that are sure to make him look good. Fans might wonder, though, if an album of snippets might not allow the necessary breathing room for Williams' relaxed approach. But listening to such samples as "Friendly Synapse Junction," "Military Brat Blues," and the solo guitar break on "Crossing Shangri-La" should help allay such fears. Williams' lines whine, stutter, and backtrack as his mind feels its way through its source materials, leaving behind a sonic trail of compelling beauty. Though the context may be missing in some of these tracks, Williams truly seems to have shaken the tastiest nuts out of the bag and into the listener's hand.
This CD, however, is far from the average solo instrumentalist's outing. The album certainly serves up its fair share of straight-up improvised solo tracks. Though some highlight Williams' penchant oddball axes like electric screwdriver, 8-ft aluminum strip and electric sitar, the presence of his signature twangy Steinberger TransTrem is thankfully strong throughout. But about half of the disk features multi-tracked orchestrations of several guitars and basses, all played by Williams. Some of these pieces are more song like, seemingly more planned out, such as the vaguely Caribbean ballad "11 p.m. on the psych ward." However, even the more complicated pieces, like "The Trance," with its eleven guitar parts, often involve Williams' wildest improvisatory playing. His careening, howling backwards guitar on that track is magnificently mind bending. There are gems galore on Antenna Road. In a genre already devoted to innovation, Davey Williams stands out as an boundary-pushing solo artist.
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