JK Morthrup is one of those musicians that you may just of heard of, but wouldn't swear as to where from.. For the record he was member of King Kobra for the 3 album and has also recorded two albums with Paul Shortino and joined XYZ for their last album Letter To God. 'Wired In My Skin' is his second solo album and no doubt he has realised that as most mere mortals cannot listen to full album of instrumental guitar music he has sensibly recruited several top notch vocalists to lend a hand.

Mind you having said that the album opens with the Satriani gone heavy vibe of Black Moon, the first of three instrumentals to feature on the album. These are spread out across the running order and hence it isn't until the sixth track that Northrup delivers the second instrumental, 'Mark My Territory', which sees him heading into a sort of heavy Alice In Chains direction and then finally serving up 'Metamorphosis', a track that is severely drum heavy and again grooves like a monster.

In between the guitar workouts the listener is treated to some excellent vocal tracks. The title track, ' Wired In My Skin' is up first and features the only appearance of Northrup's erstwhile King Kobra colleague Johnny Edwards. It may be surprisingly heavy, but it's melodic to the core. Then Kelly Keeling, singer to guitarists everywhere takes the mike for 'Big Blue Sky'. The song has a definite '70's vibe going on with just a hint of early Enuff Z'Nuff in there as well. The vocalist with the most songs on the album is XYZ frontman Terry Ilous and he makes his first appearance on 'The Road', a damn fine acoustic ballad and then retunrs for the Rush-esque 'So Long' and themore modern sounding ' Grind Me Down' In the past I'd always felt Ilous was little more than a poor man's Don Dokken, but on this album Northrup has gotten the best out his voice and he proves a real star turning in three very accomplished vocals.

Elsewhere Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley turns up for two songs, 'Perfect Imperfection' and 'If I Were James Taylor (I Could FInish This Song)'. The former is a fun, up-tempo rocker whilst the later is another acoustic ballad with an amusing lyrical take courtesy of Poley. The final singer to step up to the plate is the unknown David Zaragoza who takes vocals on 'Cemented Eyes'. This is another song with a more modern feel, sort of a Led Zeppelin thing crossed with Pearl Jam if you will and based on his performance here he won't remain unknown for to much longer....

Overall 'Wired In My Skin' is an album which, whilst it has its roots firmly s in the late 80’s hard rock scene, is modern enough so as not to sound dated. Well worth a listen.

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Track Listing

Black Moon
Wired In My Skin
Big Blue Sky
The Road
Perfect Imperfection
Mark My Territory
Cemented Eyes
So Long
Metamorphosis
Grind Me Down
If I Were James Taylor (I could finish this song)

Line Up 

Kelly Keeling - Vocals
Terry Ilous - Vocals
Ted Poley - Vocals
David Zaragoza - Vocals
J.K. Northup - Guitars/Bass/Keys
Michael T Ross - Keyboards
Dan Zoid - Drums
Glenn Hicks - Drums