Jason Scolnick already sounds like a full band, or at least half of one, just through his unique playing style. Drawing cascades of notes tumbling and resonating from his guitar, they pile up in the listener’s consciousness, filling the senses and echoing across the musical landscape. Add to that his voice, and you will have everything you need for the perfect modern take on vintage blues.

“Amazingly” kicks things off, a long (no track on the album is under 5 minutes) and hypnotic blues journey that owes as much to the shimmering sounds of shoegaze as it does blues in the familiar sense, at least in terms of the way that the sonics ebbs and flows towards us, rather than the actual sound being made.

And that opening salvo sets the tone perfectly, for it is safe to say that Jason has a certain style and explores it to the fullest without needing to push too far from the source. This is, in many ways, traditional blues, the core sound echoing with the same heartache and humour, the pain and toil, the same resilience and hope that has defined the genre for the last 100 years or so.

But as “Blues & Ecstacy” proves, this is also the sound moving on, and the walls of sound and chiming waves that he draws from his guitar is the sound of blues keeping up with the times, moving ahead even, forward-thinking and modern – the sound of the analogue world embracing digital potential.

“Soul”, in particular, underlines this, as across its five-minute duration, it seems to be almost oriental in its sound, such is the effect of the notes producing their own sort of Doppler effect, its the sound of Western traditions accidentally blending with eastern vibes, the occident and the orient dancing hand in hand.

“She’s My Lady” is slow and serenading, “Joyful Sound” is spacious and celebratory and “Grooves My Head” is the sound of psychedelia and blues coming together as one.

There have not been many changes in the blues world, and short of the electrification of the sound back in the 50s, it remains much as it has always been. However, Jason Scolnick is one of those artists reminding us that even such long-standing sonic traditions can evolve. I’m not saying that others should copy him; I’m not sure if they could, so unique is his signature sound, but hopefully, he will inspire others to help blues find new forms and sonic outlets and do so with one foot in the established sound and the other striding forward into a bright new future.