Intentional or not, the title of Elliott Sharp’s latest Clean Feed entry shares striking similarity to that of a Mick Barr disc released last year on Tzadik. The common ground turns out more than just titular as the two guitarists, though quite different in mien, also share highly stylized, almost mathematical approaches to composition. In Sharp’s case, the name nods to the specific nature of his axe. He’s rarely contented himself with playing pedestrian sets of frets. This time out the custom-designed musical vehicle is a Koll 8-string electroacoustic guitarbass. Sharp describes a voluminous set of gear particulars in his notes and while most improvisers reveal too little about their preparations and intent, he nearly ends up revealing too much. The disc’s eight tracks move well beyond the shop talk and reveal their secrets solely through sound.
Sharp’s musical personality has long been resistant to reduction. His interests are wide-ranging, but like peers Henry Kaiser and Marc Ribot he also harbors a healthy preoccupation with the blues. That elemental reservoir offers ample inspiration here as well. “Through the Wormhole” references Fahey with its fast picking and knotted loping lines that falter a little through relentless repetition. “Symmetree” brings the drones, Sharp’s strings abuzz with a translucent coating of amplification and sustain. A sharply arpeggiated motif at the piece’s center curiously reminds me of Angus Young’s immortal preamble to AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”. The folksy “Modulant” is even more arpeggio-infested as his fingers race across strings to create a tangle of divergently pitched tones orbited by slowly decaying harmonics. On “Intrinsic Spin” the patterns are so brittle and tightly wound that it sounds as if he’s playing a banjo.
The e-bow, one of Sharp’s signature tools, makes an appearance on “Strange Attractor” turning his hollow body instrument into a resonating chamber of overlapping drones. Again, the blues feeling is heavy amidst the ferrous fret buzz. He makes brilliant use of the bass strings on “Antitop and Charm”, generating a repeating helix of slapped and picked structures that reminds me of Cooper-Moore on diddley-bow. The piece chugs along a bit too long, but it’s still an impressive display of digital dexterity and rhythmic directness. “Quaternion” unsheathes the e-bow again in a bifurcated slide drone that sounds like a 21st century answer to Eddie “One String” Jones. Sharp may share certain superficial similarities to Barr, but there’s no danger of plagiarism here.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on March 9, 2008 3:01 PMTry to get your hands on Pavel Borodin's DVD about E# "The Velocity of Hue Live in Cologne".
Even the most recalcitrant ones should then realize that the man is a wicked slinger BESIDES being one of the overall best composers around.
i'm not sure that barr and sharp are even familiar with each other's music at all so plagarism is certainly out of the question! what we've got here is another solo guitar (per se) record . . .
mick's language contains ZERO blues in the traditional sense. ha ha ha. ok, i said it. his roots obviously lie in heavy metal and his particular aesthetic extrapolation of that form is primarily focused on intervallic patterns and speed for the sake of speed. he is largely unconcerned with timbral variation, dynamics, nuance or, until making the cd "anoint", even harmony.
fyi, i've been made privvy to the fact that there's a recent henry kaiser/elliott sharp guitar duo record in the can. it's pretty decent sounding.
ww
Posted by: weasel walter at March 12, 2008 11:30 AMIt’s a weak hook, I’ll admit, but I do think the math parallel holds. Sharp’s got his algorithms as does Barr even if there’s minimal overt overlap ‘tween them. So, as noted above, no danger of plagiarism on the part of either party. Though those album titles are similar :)
Kaiser’s a dude I run warm and cold on. Dig Invite the Spirit and the Yo Miles! stuff, but he sometimes veers awfully close to wankery elsewhere. The medley of “Steamboat Gwine ‘Round the Bend/How Green was My Valley” on the Takoma Revenge of Blind Joe Death tribute is one specimen that springs to mind in that mold.
Incidently, a new solo Sharp solo set Live at Dachau(!) is set to drop from Intakt as well.
Posted by: derek at March 12, 2008 1:46 PMHeard something about a Sharp/Scott Fields duo on CF forthcoming as well.
Posted by: clifford at March 12, 2008 8:17 PMsharp obviously applies a lot of overt math/statistics/whatever to his various approaches, whereas mick is much, much less analytical about it. one is not better than the other - just very different.
for mick it's more a matter of intuitive asymmetry in terms of patterns on the actual neck of the guitar or manipulating small cells of notes to taste (which has been largely geared towards non-repetition, at least before "ov" by orthrelm). in that regard, mick barr's music has more of a raw, archetypal "outsider" feel. musicmaking is actually an obsessive/compulsive affliction that he has. it's what he does every day for hours and hours locked away in his room. trust me: it goes beyond artistry and into the realm of pure compulsion for him. there are hundreds of hours of recorded music he's made that we'll never hear. i used to jokingly call him the "henry darger of the guitar", although he's much more socially adaptable than darger was.
henry kaiser's body of work is so large and diverse that it's very obvious few people are going to love all of it. let's just say that his high points are very high. ha ha ha. i'm probably biased in as much as i play with him frequently, but i have to say that long before i knew him personally, most his '70s work and '80s stuff like "invite the spirit" had a strong effect on me, as it still does.
speaking of invite the spirit, i gotta say that charles k. noyes is a great, great drummer. definitely a big influence on me as the first drummer i ever heard that completely annihilated concepts of pulse and continuity beyond recognition. the first time i heard noyes i was very much into the canon of american free jazz drummers, but noyes approach was so deliberately abstract (while retaining airs of cruelty and momentum), it seemed like a next step of liberation for me.
i'm currently busying myself trying to compile tapes by noyes old band with mark e. miller, toy killers, so i'm pretty much rinsing in his drumming right now.
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Posted by: weasel walter at March 13, 2008 1:55 AM"henry kaiser's body of work is so large and diverse that it's very obvious few people are going to love all of it"
Well, count me among those few. He's great, one of my guitar heroes indeed. His version of Skip James' "Special Rider Blues" on the baritone acoustic is must-hear stuff all the way.
Still waiting for a holy soul willing to reissue "If looks could kill" by Jim French (duets with Diamanda Galas and HK, one per side).
And those photos of him and his dog Yeller Wood on "The five heavenly truths" are wonderful.
"Marrying for money", "It's a wonderful life", "Hope you like our new direction" are also fundamental.
I'd be willing to say that HK is underestimated in relation to his value.
Posted by: Massimo Ricci at March 13, 2008 5:02 AMToy Killers - I have one track on theirs on a compilation called Island Of Sanity (I think, can't find the damn thing on my shelf), which blew my head off. Any more stuff of theirs, I WANNA HEAR IT
Just spinning your Jus CD, Weasel. Tasty.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at March 13, 2008 9:43 AMthe other really essential nugget of toy killers is "victimless crime" off of the speed trials live comp with sonic youth, live skull, beastie boys (!), et al. that's the track that knocked me out. mark miller was on tour with the golden palominos for that gig so they brought in arto lindsay to substitute. the lineup for the '83 palominos euro tour was anton fier, bill laswell, mark miller, nicky skopelitis, and at least an encore in milan, italy, henry kaiser.
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Posted by: weasel walter at March 13, 2008 12:04 PMI just got this one. E# and HK were both musicians I was into before improvised music, just from checking out the SST catalog.
I got to play with them both very early on.
HK is probably the most important musical figure in my life just in terms of pushing me places I wouldn't otherwise go.
Being involved in his projects can be really amazing if you just allow yourself to have the experience. He is a great person with a huge knowledge of music and also master of Thai cooking.
I think he is playing better than ever these days.
I am still a huge fan of E#, his improv albums on Grob and Emanem are just great. Jacob Lindsay got to work with him a few years ago in a trio. He is master improvisor.
This one is beautiful so far - thanks to MP3s I was able to get it from emusic while on tour in Israel!
One thing I have to say about Henry is that I learned about so much great music because of him. In the '80's I was a teenage bedroom metal guitarist, compulsively buying every issue of Circus, Kerrang!, Hit Parader, Guitar World, + Guitar Player, and Henry's "Essential Listening" piece in the issue with the dudes from Night Ranger on the cover is where I first learned of Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Pete Cosey, Ali Akbar Khan, Terry Riley, Masayuki Takayanagi, Conlon Nancarrow, and much more. While it would be years before I heard or saw any of those folks, Henry's words piqued my curiosity and sent me searching. In the case of Bailey, I couldn't find any records in my area, so the first time I heard Derek was at a concert in London in '89 while there as a student! In later years I always checked out Henry's lists for Bay Area publications and Forced Exposure for good recommendations. So yeah, for that I will always be grateful...
As to HK's music, I like a lot of it and some of it I'm not as into. But that's fine - such is the nature of a large body of work as Weasel says here. I've got one LP of Henry playing with Toshinori Kondo and John Oswald that I dig, among others. Also remember Henry taking some great solos on an SST record by someone named Everett Shock (although i could be off on the name). He had this killer tone on that album - kind of like Hubert Sumlin meets Zoot Horn Rollo...Mighta been that Dumble amp. Also have serious respect/admiration for Henry's Madagascar recordings, especially for bringing D'Gary - one of the greatest musicians alive - to our ears.
Amazingly I stumbled across a copy of "If Looks Could Kill" 15 or so years ago at a crappy used record store in suburban Metairie... even weirder it is apparently autographed by Diamanda. How it wound up in that store is likely a strange tale indeed. According to the FE interview she really hates that album, so don't expect a reissue.
Alan Licht also mentions having a similar epiphany due to the Kaiser Guitar Player piece mentioned above, which goes to show you that you never know who picks up on the ripples you send out and how that might get a young mind seriously involved. It was nice to get to meet Henry this summer in the Bay Area and thank him in person.
AND...this prompts me to crack open that "Healing Force" CD (henry, weasel, damon, etc.) this weekend and give it a whirl.
Posted by: Rob Cambre at March 14, 2008 3:11 PMarrggg... dammit I swear I only posted that once!
anyhoo, E#'s A-OK too. Need to check out his solo albums, espec on acoustic. 'Nuther SST memory - Sharp's ace solos on those Mofungo albums...
Posted by: Rob Cambre at March 14, 2008 3:31 PMthe last comment i left has not been posted and it says my messages are now being moderated? ????
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Posted by: weasel walter at March 15, 2008 12:15 PMclearly you're not posting on a Mac using Safari ... where one still gets infernal wait + internal error, but one's posts do appear.
btw, my emails to you keep bouncing.
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