Bucolic, Pacific Northwesterly recapitulation of languidly pulsing guitar, from Fahey to Fripp.

Mind Over Mirrors High & Upon [Aguirre; 2012] by J Arthur Bloom Rating: As I walked through the rain this weekend listening to Mind Over Mirrors’ High & Upon , hood pulled up over my immodestly large German headphones, I kept thinking of that bizarre Line">Firing Line interview where Allen Ginsburg starts singing Hare Krishnas to William F. Buckley. Sure, Bloom, they both play harmoniums (harmonia?). Some connection. It’s true — on the surface, they have very little in common. Jaime Fennelly doesn’t sing either. But the first track, “I’m Willing to Stagger,” lurches into its trebly opening with something like the assertiveness of poems like “Howl,” and the whole thing is shot through with pseudo-mystical overtones that feel more retro than the late rediscoveries of sacred geometry, tarot, pyramids, and whatnot. The pacific regionalism of “Wichita Vortex Sutra” is there somewhere in “Harmattan Morning,” the shorter track by 11 minutes. The whole album has a gorgeously warm sound, thanks to Fennelly’s other instrument — tape delay — but the effect is especially nice here, with countermelodies following one another in and out of intelligibility. The obscurity suggests the piece’s title, named after an easterly wind that brings dust and haze to West Africa, but it applies just as well to the place Fennelly first conceived the Mind Over Mirrors project: the Salish Sea of Washington State, land of heavy sky and perpetual deluge. Dust, rain, tape delay — they deny clarity, but they also pervade. Fennelly is “all about saturated sound,” according to the project’s Bandcamp. It would be tough for any single musician to achieve the kind of saturation he does with any other combination of instruments. Seriously, the compositions are fine and all, but the coolest part is the timbres; the harmonium’s thick overtones shimmering with tape delay, thick chords in “Mountain Convalescence” rising in volume from an accompaniment to a screen for the melody to an all-consuming wall of sound. His work with Peeesseye is excellent, but there’s a monastic quality to this solo work I really appreciate. And parts of the album — especially that lovely second track — sound like a Takoma Records tribute on keys, equally indebted to Fahey’s brand of ...

Read the first part of Kris Needs' Fifty Outsiders, a departure point for your own investigation into outsider artists. 1. SUN RA Claiming to come from Saturn, Sun Ra was an outsider all his life, whether experiencing abhorrent racism growing up in Alabama to fearlessly reconstructing jazz, pioneering the modern independent label releasing (literally) countless albums on his El Saturn imprint. Ra left this planet in 1993 but is increasingly hailed as one of the last century‘s greatest musicians and composers. 2. MOONDOG Through the 1950s and ’60s, blind New York street legend Louis Thomas Hardin, AKA Moondog, ’The ...

County Mayo-born Seamus Fogarty appears to be drawing on particular rural concerns and characters on his debut album: songs about mountains, water, the wind and apple trees plus titles featuring Dinny Phil (and his walking stick) and Rita Jack. But “God Damn You Mountain” never becomes locked to a specific place, country or even single mood - it’s a displaced record creating its own sonic landscape and Fogarty’s neutral even deadpan burr sounds closer to Fife than to Limerick. And Fence Records - headquartered in Cellardyke, Fife - is the faultless home for this release, with its wayward folky sounds formed ...

When Peter Lang released Dharma Blues in 2002 it was his first album in 16 years. He was one of the second wave of fingerpicking guitarists, probably the gutsiest of the American Primitivist trio of Fahey, Kottke and Lang. That's certainly in evidence in the full speed pick and slide of Halloween Blues , a blistering folk/country/blues piece. It's got real wallop. Horrifically, Lang was injured in a car accident in 2008. His medical insurers refused to pay for his treatment and he's facing mounting bills and very poor health. You can donate towards his health ...

To many across the globe, Spillers Records in Cardiff is more than just a shop; it’s an institution. Boasting the title of the oldest record store in the world, it was founded in 1894 by Henry Spiller and is still going strong today (despite the odd tumultuous time!). ClashMusic caught up with owner Ashli Todd, to talk third chances, Manic Street Preacher dedications and dysfunctional school photos. Spillers is the oldest record store in the world. What has kept it going all these years? It's a hard one to pin down but at the core of it are ...

by Bill Meyer A quarter century has passed since Robbie Basho died, and while his music isn't being co-opted by car commercials like John Fahey's , his star has risen from the sad depths he was in at the time of his death. He's been the subject of an unusually fine tribute record , excellent posthumous and ... Read More

Además del esperado show de Thuston Moore, esta noche y mañana el escenario de Niceto será testigo del debut en Sudamérica de Kurt Vile, músico estadounidense con una gran habilidad para mezclar rock, folk, country, blues, space rock y shoegaze. Con notables influencias de Fleetwood Mac, John Fahey, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty y [...]

Doug Paisley’s ”Bats” is a song for all seasons. It’s good for sitting around in the dead of winter or lazy nights sipping bourbon outside in the sweltering summer, and there’s a fine chance this one is going to probably stick around on several of your mixes like a John Fahey or Bonnie “Prince” Billy (who [...]

Toulouse Engelhardt releases "Toulousology" on May 8   Career spanning anthology from the Segovia of Surf!      Guitar instrumentalist, composer and humorist Toulouse Engelhardt, the celebrated guitar virtuoso, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived immersed in Southern California beach culture for much of the past four decades. Over the years Engelhardt has earned accolades from serious critics of the guitar and the public alike for his lightning-fast guitar stylings and colorful, cinematic melodies. He was the last original member of the so-called "Takoma Seven," the highly celebrated innovators of finger-style guitar that recorded for Takoma Records from 1965 to 1976 ...

Chevrolet Sound Garage music host Damien Fahey conducted an interview with THE CULT guitarist Billy Duffy during this year's South By Southwest (SXSW) festival, which is being held in Austin, Texas.

by Dusted Magazine Dean McPhee Dean McPhee is a solo guitarist, but not of the sort that you often read about at Dusted. The West Yorkshire gent isn't a Fahey acolyte but he does fingerpick he's more of the slow-burning variety, electric but ancient at the same time. His album Son of The Black Peace was... Read More

Bonobo by HANS REICHEL In Europe, Hans Reichel is revered as an innovator and guitarist on par with folks like Derek Bailey and John Fahey. He invented his own unique language on the instrument – but he didn’t stop there. He radically modified and created wild new hybrid guitars that produced sounds like the koto, organ, [...]

A few months ago I received an e-mail from Dustin Drase of Plus Tapes. “I've got this guitar wunderkid that we're putting out. The kid is incredible, I really want to chronicle what he's doing. He's like a young John Fahey or Tim Buckley." Already a fan of Ryley Walker, I kept a more keen eye on when he was playing, and tried to attend every time. If I did have my cameras, most of the shows were entirely dark and unfilmable affairs, like a full-band warehouse show, ...

1965: John Fahey - The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death by Miles Bowe on 02-14-2012 “I pretty much set John up and let him play. He was all by himself for most of it. I wasn’t even around for many of the takes. I set him up and let him play. He sat there with a dog at his feet.” – Barry Hansen (a.k.a. Dr. Demento) That quote seems to sum up the flawlessness of John Fahey’s fourth album, The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death . Anything beyond the setup of just a microphone and a guitar during these ...