Wes Tirey - Home Recordings (Orange Milk, 2014)

Asheville, NC guitarist Wes Tirey runs quite a gamut: A consummate singer / songwriter of charming country melancholia, a player who is proficient with the acoustic Fahey Americana, and one who is sometimes just downright experimental.

This cassette release for Orange Milk is a collection of home recordings from his residences in  Dayton, OH and Black Mountain, NC between 2009 and 2011. Its an intriguing mixture of improvisations and compositions ranging from morose to joyful, invoking anything from spiritual oppression to intimate longing. Regardless of the intent, Tirey's subterfuge is effective. You'll feel it in your bones.

Neil Young with The Ducks - Shows from the Summer of 1977

For a few weeks during the summer of 1977 in Santa Cruz, California, a rock group formed by singer/ songwriter Jeff Blackburn played some shows. The band also consisted of Bob Mosely (Moby Grape), Johnny Craviotto (sessions drummer for Ry Cooder, Arlo Guthrie and Buffy St. Marie), and some guy named Neil Young. They played songs about trucks, girls and bars. Here's a compilation of board recordings from these shows. A little summer music for your winter:

Zelienople - The World is a House on Fire (Type, 2012)

Everyone's favorite Chicago drone poppers / pill poppers are back with another glorious outing. I've had this on repeat for two months. Its really the kind of record you can listen three times consecutively before you realize its happened.

This album is less doom and gloom than the last. Here they stick with a freeform shoegaze vibe, mixed with a  ghostly americana aesthetic. Think Slowdive's "Pygmalion" meets Labradford's "Mi Media Naranja". In fact, this is a perfect hybrid of those two records, which incidentally are two of my favorite records.

Listen / Buy the LP HERE

Peter Walker - Long Lost Tapes 1970 (Tompkins Square, 2009)

Reasons to like Peter Walker:

#1. Virtuoso guitarist in the John Fahey / Robbie Basho raga style.
#2. Timothy Leary's musical director for a time.
#3. Recorded albums released by Vanguard.
#4. The tapes were recorded at Levon Helm's house by Eddie Offord (producer of early YES)
#5. Sick, sick, sick drummer on this record making his sound even more psychedelic.
#6. I can't get enough of it.

Tashi Dorji - Improvisations for Guitar (Headway Recordings, 2012)

Bhutanese guitarist Tashi Dorji is an exceptional musician, and a multi-instrumentalist who happens to excel on guitar. Live you can expect either an intense avant garde onslaught of Derek Bailey style electric or beautiful experimentations mostly on the acoustic, which is what is presented on this cassette release.

Over the course of about forty minutes, Dorji runs the gamut of his instruments possibilities. From pastoral pieces to John Fahey-inspired americana to Indian raggas to stabbing primal aggression. All of this is provided with a constant sense of grace and humility.

In the new school of experimental guitarists, Dorji fits well alongside Bill Orcutt and Glenn Jones.



Purchase the cassette here

Amen Dunes - Through Donkey Jaw (Sacred Bones, 2011)

Its extremely rare that I hear an album without having preconceived notions. Its even rarer that I am positively stunned by what I'm hearing. Acid folkster Damon McMahon stunned me today. With his blatently hallucinogenic and jangly, off kilter tunes (don't even think about assuming he sounds like Syd because its not that simple), he conjures spirits and levitates around metaphysical lyrics that always retain a sense of cohesion.

Yes, there are a few cliches. Nearly infinite reverb and occasionally sitar-like guitar lines abound but I never find them annoying, possibly due to the structure of the record.

The first few songs are disturbed and effected folk tunes, after which he begins to experiment, alternating between psych-pop themes and spiritual feeling sounds that feel genuine but never over the top. There is also a subtle tribal element to the predominantly floor tom-based drumming that really suits my fancy.

Ultimately, I can't help but describe this as the best hypnagogic pop / folk record ever recorded... and possibly the only one. If that term doesn't fit your snooty criteria, just forget I called it that and download / buy the fucking record anyway. Everyone should own this one.

Get it Here

James Blackshaw - Sunshrine (2005)

The introduction of bells is reminiscent of an old Folkways Soto Zen Temple Ceremony album I just purchased. And this is a perfect meditative palette for Blackshaw's 12 string guitar virtuosity. These are lush and sedate yet complex arrangements of finger-picking magick. Its dizzying to follow. So dizzying, that once you stop trying to follow it, you'll find yourself lost in a trance.

Unlike some of his Tacoma-esque contemporaries, Blackshaw is a talented composer. John Fahey's influence is apparent but so is Phillip Glass', as the guitar and bells meander down a beautifully repetitive path. His path is visionary and adventurous but never harsh or dark.

Recommended if you enjoy morning coffee, weed or meditation.

Get It Here

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