Red, Green and Blues

PCBender works entirely in guitar and groove on ‘Red, Green and Blues,’ fifteen instrumental tracks named for colors that range from the familiar to the obscure, and that naming instinct tells you something about the album’s sensibility: specific, a little eccentric, unhurried. ‘Cyclamen’ opens with an easy swagger that sets the terms clearly, and the record mostly honors them, cycling through waltz-time blues-rock, funk-adjacent struts, and quieter reflective pieces without ever losing the thread of a craftsman who trusts his hands. The sequencing does real work here: the back half, from ‘Thulian’ through the closing run of ‘Jonquil,’ ‘Aureolin,’ and ‘Moonstone,’ builds a cumulative warmth that makes the album feel like more than a playlist of well-made guitar pieces. A tight, confident collection from an artist who knows exactly what he is.