Cul de Sac & John Fahey, The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones (Thirsty Ear) 9+
At first glance, John Fahey seems to be an unlikely hero for today's indie rockers and avant popsters. He entered the folk scene in 1959 with Blind Joe Death, an album of steel-stringed acoustic country and blues instrumentals. His influence on hundreds of grinnin' and pickin' folkies, along with the more exceptional Leo Kottke and Ry Cooder is widely known. Dig deeper into his music, however, and you'll find layers of more mystery to the myth rather than any one true essence. You'll find dark, oblique mysticism that influenced New Age. Not only was he an encyclopedia and avid collector of pre-war country and blues, Fahey had a firm grasp of the modern classical harmonic concepts of Bartok, Charles Ives and Harry Partch. You'll also hear hints of Indian classical music, dissonant guitar tunings and even precursors to psychedelia. It's amazing that this musical treasure was found in the early 90s wallowing in sickness and poverty in Oregon. Thanks to a career retrospective in 1994, Return of the Repressed: The John Fahey Anthology and his rediscovery by hipsters, he is back in the limelight again with several new releases and collaborations, and even his own record label.
On The Epiphany Of Glenn Jones, the master actually participates. He didn't play nicely, though. Cul de Sac brought a nearly complete batch of songs for Fahey to play along with. He refused to play the material the Cambridge-based band had prepared. Instead, they were forced to plunge blindly into Fahey's world, resulting in an anarchic improvised music Guitarist Glenn Jones should have known it would happen that way. After all, he's a long time fan of Fahey, and should know by now how he works. On their first album, ECIM, Cul de Sac rearranged Fahey's "Portland Cement Factory at Monolith California." Fahey's influence can be heard on all their releases, along with elements of 60s instrumental surf rock, psychedelia, 70s German space rock and Middle Eastern devotional trance. Cul de Sac are quite the live act to behold. Bassist Chris Fujiwara is also a filmmaker, and his films often play during their performances, along with Italian films by A.S. Hamrah. In addition to his imaginative guitar playing, the band features Jones' Contraption, a homemade stringed, er, thingy, loaded to the gills with electronic gadgets. Robin Amos compliments the Contraption with synthesizers and sets the mood with noisy soundscapes, allowing Fujiwara and drummer Jon Proudman to take their rhythms into the stratosphere, where they find John Fahey. Together they take a thoroughly entertaining magic carpet ride through no less than the past and the future of rock 'n' roll.
