Paul Metzger
"Three Compositions on
Modified Banjo" CD
Chairkickers' Union Music
Genres:
experimental folk, acoustic, American Primitive
April 2006 |
I like it when the title of the album describes the music on it. Makes
things easier for me. What we get here is pretty straightforward if
you've been following the American Primitive scene these days. In the
long-running Fahey tradition, Metzger offers up his
improvised banjo finger-picking for the benefit of us all. I'm going
to admit I'm not experienced enough with this genre to be able to pick
out each composition and notice much difference between them; in fact,
for me these three improvisations all seem to work together, making up
one large piece as opposed to three shorter ones. At just under an
hour, that makes for a lot of improv banjo plucking, but the tranquil,
pensive strokes of Metzger's fingers make for a suitably peaceful and
thoroughly enjoyable experience. This is too sparse and freeform to
appeal to a lot of people (far less structured than the work of
someone like Harris Newman or Charlie Schmidt), but that
allows the truly dedicated listener to hear everything that's going
on.
Metzger's banjo being modified (12+ strings, not to mention
a sitar bridge), there are some unexpected sounds in these
compositions. Aspects of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean music run
rampant through this work, but it keeps in line with the folk
tradition that defines this body of work. Though at times long-winded
in its approach (what else to expect from an hour of one instrument?),
this disc avoids tedium through Metzger's sheer talent and
grace. This is the work of a very talented guitarist, and that fact is
never questioned through Three Improvisations. Whether it be
his technical skill on the album's various impossibly complex
climaxes, or the restraint shown in the quieter moments, we're always
aware of the impressive talent of the man behind the music. And while
for some this would spell disaster (or at least self-absorption),
Metzger pulls this record off with not a trace of pretension. I
hope I'm making myself abundantly clear when I say this - this is a
very recommended experimental acoustic artifact.
MP3s (from paulmetzger.net):
excerpt
from track 3
87%
Matt Shimmer
[Vitals: 3 tracks, distributed by
the label, released 2005] |