Guitar Solos cover

Guitar Solos

Released

Experimental guitarist Fred Frith has made so many albums over the decades, and in so many styles and with so many band configurations, that it’s tough to know where to start. Of his solo work, this is one of the two foundational albums. It documents his “guitars on the table approach,” which involved laying two guitars next to each other on a table and striking them, dropping things on them, bowing them, and manipulating the resulting sounds with various pedals and effects. The music is otherworldly, of course, and yet never merely noisy or abrasive; his genius is in making sounds that don’t necessarily sound like music as such, and yet can hold your attention like a pop song does.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Lookout for Hope cover

Lookout for Hope

The Bill Frisell Band
Unfiltered Universe cover

Unfiltered Universe

Rez Abbasi, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Vijay Iyer, Dan Weiss
Vines cover

Vines

Damiana
Reich Remixed cover

Reich Remixed

Various Artists
Macroscope cover

Macroscope

Nels Cline
Futurama cover

Futurama

Be Bop Deluxe
One Arm Bandits cover

One Arm Bandits

Alvin Lucier