Clear Your Mind of all that Guitar Hero Bullshit and Listen to This

It is incredibly easy for me to review something negatively. All I have to do is use my gigantic vocabulary and love of a good cuss fest to rip, tear, shred and otherwise reduce something I think should be dead into a pile of steaming rubble. I have done this on several occasions and it gives me a rush of energy similar to what cocaine addicts must feel after their first snort of the day. And while it’s all fun to spit in the eye of musicians who are wasting your, my and everyone else’s time, it is, again, easy and doesn’t bring positive energy into the world. So noting that, I would like to say something good about something.

Album: Clearing
Artist: Fred Frith
Genre: Solo Guitar
Year: 2001
Label: Tzadik

Yes, Solo Guitar is a genre. I decided to review this album almost purely at random and my decision may not have been the best one. But I do like this album as Fred Frith is something of a genius when it comes to the guitar. While the world is filled with these wanktastic guitar solo loving assholes, Frith is like a cool drink of water to quench your thirst for something both refreshing and genuinely original. There aren’t any words, just guitar and probably some pedals. It is simple, beautiful music that would probably please even the Buddha with its grace, minimalism and dare I say Zen. That’s what this is, Zen Guitar.

Frith was originally the guitar player for Henry Cow, an Avant-Garde British act that I’ve heard great things about but never heard. Since Cow, Frith has collaborated with everyone from Bill Laswell to John Zorn, occasionally at the same time. Indeed, one of Frith’s more insane moments was as the bass player for Zorn’s Naked City, a Thrash Jazz act which would discombobulate you with a flick of the wrist and then tear you a new one, all under a minute. But that’s off topic. Clearing is nothing like that. It is, again, simply beautiful, with Frith’s minimalist guitar creating delicate paintings of aural grace. I know I keep repeating myself, but that’s only so I get my point across that this music is brilliant, in a very subtle way.

Individual tracks would be poorly described with words and are better to just experience. I feel to continue talking at this juncture would just be a waste. So, go get this album now. The next time you’re in the need for Zen, put it on. If tracks like The Bow Moon and Open Ocean don’t convince you that there is beauty in the world, then nothing else will. That’s all.