Customer Reviews

Aggregates 1-26

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a masterpiece of guitar-skronk. Arto Lindsay is just about the premier skronk guitarist of all time. If you like other Noise mavens such as Adrien Belew's noise making as the Twang Bar King and w/ King Crimson, Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans, Sonic Youth's noise explorations, Arto's work with Peter Scherer as Ambitous Lovers, or maybe even Red Red Meat's experimental lo-fi sonic noise, or Jon Spencer's sonic rumblings, then you might wanna check this out. It takes a little while to grow on you, but once you get, it's awesome. It's one of the best de-tuned harmonic distorto noise improvisations ever committed to a recording medium. I just wish Arto would do a few more off the wall projects such as this.

I've always wondered whether Arto Lindsay tunes his guitar. With the amount of noise and dissonance that comes out of it I am inclined think not; plus the fact that he claims not to know any chords, or to even to be able to play guitar lends credence to the idea that his guitar comes out of the case ready to play. But then how does everything he plays sound 'right'? Like with the Ambitious Lovers, Lindsay's percussive "ker-chunk" on guitar always sounded perfect for the song; the cluster of notes, the dissonance, the ringing harmonics from the muted strings were always musically correct. On "Aggregates 1-26" the Arto Lindsay Trio (Melvin Gibbs on bass, Dougie Bowne on drums, Lindsay on guitar & vocals) play 26 song fragments about the darker side of relationships. The vocals have more of an abstract, beat poetry-style delivery, softly spoken at times, yowling at other times; not quite the crooning from Lindsay's subsequent Brazilian-pop releases although he approaches that style on the cool funk of "Looks Like You". Melvin Gibbs transfers the melody to the bass line where he and Dougie Bowne build some great grooves. If you're a fan of Arto Lindsay's guitar style there's a ton of it here - and in a more accessible (for lack of a better term) format than the DNA or Locus Solus material. Recommended for the Arto Lindsay fans who enjoyed the wall of feedback in the hidden track on "Noon Chill".

Weird and purely avant garde, This artist is amzingly innovative with his eclectic mix of styles in jazz/art rock. His new release on Righteous Babe Records is bringing him to the forefront of alternative popular music as well. This should be in your collection if you consider yourself an artist and a rocker!