Pat Metheny Group - Offramp

Offramp captures the 1982 moment when the Pat Metheny Group plugged in a guitar synthesizer and the band's sound opened wide, presented here on 180-gram vinyl.

Recorded in 1981 at the Power Station in New York with Manfred Eicher producing for ECM, it was the Group's third studio album and a genuine turning point. Steve Rodby arrived on bass alongside Metheny, Lyle Mays and drummer Danny Gottlieb, while Brazilian percussionist and vocalist Naná Vasconcelos added wordless vocals and colour that pushed the music somewhere cinematic. The album went on to win the Grammy for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, the first of many for the Group.

Metheny's Roland GR-300 makes its studio debut here, and the title track "Offramp" uses it to wild effect, a squalling, free-leaning tribute to Ornette Coleman. At the other end of the spectrum sits "Are You Going With Me?", a slow-building ballad that became the Group's signature, its synth-guitar solo rising like heat over a long highway. "James", inspired by James Taylor, offers a sunny, folk-tinged lift.

Mays' keyboards and Vasconcelos' textures give everything a spacious, painterly quality, the sound of a band discovering just how big a studio can feel.

Decades on, Offramp remains a cornerstone of melodic jazz fusion, and a heavyweight pressing suits an album this rich in atmosphere.