Michael Chapman
Album: Playing Guitar The Easy Way
Label: Light In The Attic
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk

This is one of the missing links in the representation of Michael Chapman's records on CD. First issued back in 1978 on Criminal Records (catalogue number STEAL2!), it takes the form of a brief collection of instrumental pieces played in an intriguing (and typical Chapman) variety of alternative tunings, intended to accompany and illustrate the enclosed "instruction manual that isn't" - if you get my (wrytree) drift!… Well, I just love the self-deprecating way Mr Chapman introduces it: "The main idea behind this venture is to make life easier for guitar players - especially me. I have always faced one serious handicap as a player in that my fingers are more suited to a builder's yard than to a fretboard". Heavy trace of irony alert!

This well-presented first-time-on-CD reissue presents for our delectation half an hour of prime late-70s Chapman fingerwork, complete with gentle phase/flange and fuzz effects, freshly remastered from Michael's personal original tapes - and it sounds great. It consists of a series of 12 pieces, all but one well under three minutes in duration: some of the items aren't entirely familiar from elsewhere, being hidden under different cryptic titles, but most of the rest will be pretty recognisable to Chapman aficionados in their original role as song settings and accompaniments (Kodak Ghosts weighs in here in the guise of Sometimes In The Night, for instance), but here the pieces are given a surprisingly satisfying lease of life as "hints and ideas that would hopefully lead (the player) to further experimentation".

The booklet reproduces in full Derek Brimstone's original tablature, and the appended list of tunings for all Michael's songs up to that point will be abundantly useful to practising guitarists I'm sure. Michael's December 2013 hindsight-note still views the venture as "a collection of hints for would-be songwriters", modestly concluding "I hope it succeeds as such".

David Kidman