Various Artists
Imaginational Anthem: A Guitar Anthology
(Near Mint)
O glorious guitar, the sound
of wood made radiant, the sound of metal made vegetal, a vibrating
synthesis of opposing elements housed in a vaguely female-shaped
form! Unlike the elitist piano, which costs a bundle to buy and
maintain and can’t be lugged around at a moment’s
notice, the guitar is basically democratic: You can strum it alone
or with others; you can bang out barre chords in the basement or
pluck forth an intricate Bach prelude in the concert hall. The
guitar doesn’t care whether you’re a hobo, a maestro,
or, in the case of the artists collected on Imaginational Anthem, a
little of both.
Aside from one track (a duet for guitar and
piano by Gyan Riley and his famous composer dad, Terry), this
exquisitely sequenced compilation consists entirely of fingerpicked
guitar instrumentals performed by an assortment of prodigies past
and present. Visionary forebears such as Sandy Bull and John Fahey
are well represented, as are newer talents such as Harris Newman, a
Montreal musician with post-rock tendencies, and the Slip’s
Brad Barr, the sole envoy from jam-band land. Neither is the
sisterhood slighted: Old-school virtuosa Janet Smith and
25-year-old hotshot Kaki King both make memorable appearances.
There’s even a track by Bern Nix, best known for his
avant-jazz collaborations with the likes of Ornette Coleman and
John Zorn. Although all the contributors have idiosyncratic,
immediately recognizable styles, the overall effect is harmonious,
from the Medievalist blues of Harry Taussig’s “Dorian
Sonata” to the epiphanic raga of Jack Rose’s
“White Mule III” to Max Ochs’ twin renderings of
the luminous title track. But the real star is the guitar itself,
not its disciples. It pings and throbs, hums and murmurs, chimes
and chatters, an entire orchestra crammed into one lap-sized
package.
Angels of Light & Akron/Family
Akron/Family & Angels of Light
(Young God)
Depending on your tolerance for
so-called freak folk — the latest hipster-sanctioned
descriptor for acoustic-based music that doesn’t reek of
unchecked earnestness — ex-Swans leader Michael Gira is
either a hero or a villain. As the founder of Young God Records, he
may be lauded or cursed for unleashing Devendra Banhart on an
unsuspecting world a few years back. Since then, Banhart has been
pretty much ubiquitous — ridiculously prolific in his own
right and a tireless champion of lesser-known acts. But if Banhart
is freak folk’s Jesus (long hair, full beard, swarthy
complexion, and all!), Gira is its Jehovah.
Now Gira has a new messiah to pimp:
Akron/Family, a ramshackle New York City-based collective that does
double duty as Angels of Light (a.k.a. Gira and whomever he anoints
to back him). Last year, Akron/Family released its self-titled
debut and supported Gira on the latest Angels of Light outing; now
the band wears both hats at once on the split CD Akron/Family & Angels of Light, which consists of seven original tracks sans Gira, four tracks
penned and sung by Gira, and one Gira-voiced cover, Bob
Dylan’s “I Pity the Poor Immigrant.” Although the
AoL songs generally lack the lunatic energy of the A/F
contributions, Gira sounds more vital than he has in years, whether
he’s revisiting an old Swans number or simply basking in his
young cohorts’ cacophonous soundscapes. His saturnine
baritone gains new strength from these measured infusions of chaos,
but it’s the A/F originals that stick with you in the end. In
the incantatory “Future Myth,” the band marshals
ambient noise, avant-minimalism, ’70s prog, and anthemic
art-folk, creating a clattering triumph and a magisterial disaster
in eight minutes that, against all odds, transpire too quickly.
