Mark McGuire: Living with Yourself (Editions Mego, 10/12/10)

Mark McGuire: "Clouds Rolling In"

Hajduch: Living with Yourself is the most recent solo-guitar release of Mark McGuire, who also plays guitar in Emeralds. Much like Emeralds, McGuire's music spins a gradual yarn over a combination of picked arpeggios and buzzing drones, delayed and looped and layered into a hypnotic tapestry that has become impossible to ignore.

This is McGuire's first solo release for Editions Mego (which also released Emeralds' breakout Does It Look Like I'm Here?), meaning that it should make it into more hands than his usual cassette-only or limited-run vinyl releases. It's also his best, tightening up the song structure and adding audio from tapes of family conversations with his father and brother (and, briefly, dog) over the past decade.

Morrow: Also, we should clarify that this is not the über-'roided baseball slugger who desecrated the MLB home-run records.  Though that dude is multi-talented (at hitting baseballs as well as clamming up before Congress), I don't think that he creates swirling guitar loops that cascade from melodies to fuzz and back again.  But I could be wrong.

I'm relatively new to the Emeralds experience, so I don't have a long memory for comparing that to McGuire's solo stuff.  Both are complex yet ambient, and naturally, the Emeralds material presents other timbres (decades-old synth sounds, predominantly) thanks to the two other members.  And both McGuire and Emeralds release oodles of songs.

Parts of Living with Yourself, however, are structured much more as accessible guitar instrumentals.  Tracks such as "Around the Old Neighbourhood" and "Clear the Cobwebs" feel much closer to The Appleseed Cast or other late-'90s Deep Elm bands.

Hajduch: Both McGuire and Emeralds have followed similar progressions recently: away from long-form hiss and fuzz and towards straightforward, much more accessible melodic composition.  (McGuire's Tidings and Amethyst Waves tapes were both recently reissued — four tracks, each improvised and the length of a cassette side — and though it's noisy and buzzy and difficult, the material is absolutely gorgeous.)

There's great material on either side of the divide, but I think that the move towards simplicity suits McGuire well on this album.  The guitar melodies and the vocal samples from old home videos create a cozy, autumnal vibe.  Mark McGuire signed to an experimental label so that he could make a total "Cosby sweater" album, and it's phenomenal.

I'd hate to take away from the surprise, but the last track features drums, and it really, truly rocks, which most Emeralds/McGuire material doesn't really get around to doing.  His thick, multi-tracked guitar sounds more than a little like Mogwai, which I'm not usually a fan of, but here it works out great.

Morrow: Indeed, much like the last album that we covered, the final two tracks are my favorites — "Clear the Cobwebs" and "Brothers (for Matt)."

On a side note, I was glad yet unsurprised to find that Living with Yourself was mastered by James Plotkin, who also worked on the Tidings / Amethyst Waves combined reissue and who seems to be involved with every musical recording under the sun.  He just helped produce the Sailors with Wax Wings and White Moth albums by R. Loren that are out this month.  And I still need to get my hands on the Jodis album that he did with Aaron Turner (Isis) and Tim Wyskida (Khanate).  That guy needs to keep making music, period.

Anyway, fans of Emeralds should really dig McGuire's latest, but don't let a lack of familiarity with his main band prevent you from checking this out.  It sounds like we both strongly recommend this one.

Perhaps the poster group for its genre, Sunn has spent the past 10 years experimenting in epic, doomy sound and noise.

Now, with Monoliths & Dimensions, the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson teams with guests galore to create, in the words of the group, "the most musical piece we've done."  Guest musicians Eyvind Kang (John Zorn, Bill Frisell), Jessika Kenney (Eyvind Kang, Asva), Oren Ambarchi (Burial Chamber Trio), Dylan Carlson (Earth), Julian Priester (Sun Ra, John Coltrane) and others help make that so, while retaining the creeping, end-of-the-world vibe that persists thoughout Sunn's work.

Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head)

As the belated swan song for the super-group collaboration between Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))), James Plotkin (Phantomsmasher), Alan Dubin (OLD), and Tim Wyskida (Blind Idiot God), Clean Hands Go Foul is a fitting endgame for Khanate's aural presentation of desolation and despair.  Evil ambience crests and falls, working with ominous chords and soul-shredding screams; naturally, fans of O'Malley's other work will love this.

Khanate: "Wings from Spine" (excerpt)
Khanate: \"Wings from Spine\" (excerpt)

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest (Warp)

Unconventional indie darlings Grizzly Bear have pushed three years since their last full-length release, and the passage of time hasn't diminished the band's creative stroke.

On Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear's trademark vocal harmonies and layered orchestrations are still present, but the album features a slightly heavier touch of electronics and chamber elements.  By and large, however, this is the same Grizzly Bear, and preexisting fans won't feel alienated by this disc.

Sir Richard Bishop: The Freak of Araby (Drag City)

In his solo creations and many collaborative endeavors, ex-Sun City Girls guitarist Richard Bishop weaves through Arabic, Indian, flamenco, African, and Gypsy influences in both composed and improvised settings.

With his new album, he employs a clean, reverberated electric guitar in place of his usual acoustic sound, and he adds a bit of percussive assistance. For spring and summer tour dates, Bishop will perform with a full ensemble, which should make his ethnic creations even more compelling.

Master Musicians of Bukkake: Totem One (Conspiracy)

Milky and Don McGreevy of Earth, producer extraordinaire Randall Dunn (Secret Chiefs 3, Sunn O)))), Bill Horist of Ghidra, and other noted Northwest musicians comprise this collective that designs psychedelic, ethnically inspired folk freak-outs.

With Totem One, the group begins a musical trilogy while expanding and maturing its expansive sound.  The album's guests include Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls and Timb Harris of Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3.

Vieux Farka Touré: Fondo (Six Degrees)

The son of musical Malian icon Ali Farka Touré, guitarist/singer Vieux Farka Touré has garnered international distinction since the release of his self-titled debut album, issued the year after his famous father’s death.

That disc, which was remixed later in the same year, featured kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate on a pair of tracks and combined Mande and Sonrai folk styles with pop and a touch of reggae.  Diabate is back to help with Fondo, which finds Vieux taking more of a distinctive direction while improving his songwriting chops.