singing knives 2017, edition of ?
"A six-part live electric guitar set, recorded to reel-to-reel tape in the cellar of a Prague coffeehouse. Comes in an oversize four-colour risograph-printed folding outer sleeve with full-colour postcard insert."
why not, one more COLLIN rec before year's end, just in time, and it's a doozy
this sounds like LOREN CONNORS tensely focused in a minimal-maximized third eye lagrange point of profundity, TOM CARTER at his most austere yet freakishly inspired, making BURNT MONDAY sound like a dress rehearsal --goddamn, JANDEK could have conquered the known universe if his guitar sounded like this-- as COLLIN's possessed improvisational style moves in-and-out tangential to an all time favorite cassette in FIVE GUITARS FOR TONY CONRAD, at times almost locking in like an isolated thread of that epic one-in-a-million missive, only to veer into once-in-a-universe territory
by now i'm sure i sound like a broken record going on about COLLIN's music, but he's kinda thee alpha and omega in my tiny corner of the weirdo music world, and has been for a while
i listen to -a lot- of new stuff, even in a down year - not down in quality - it was a down year for me because i scaled back my rampant obsession, more on the buying side than the digging side, even so i tried to spend less time unblinkingly searching for new stuff - i try to avoid using the word "best" when "favorite" is much more interesting to me - i don't separate the two except in an attempt to connect with those who do by translating "best" as "an arbitrary quasi objective measurement of quality often favoring critical and/or popular consensus and/or some other arbitrary significance (artistic, cultural, historical, number of copies sold) while often discounting one's own opinion vis a vis 'favorite'" - if that sounds boring, i agree
far be it from me to claim what is "best" by that measure, hell i'm probably too far gone to even claim my own surefire favorite, as by year's end i've likely boasted some twenty titles as "stone cold top ten" --though i have tried to shore that up a bit-- also i'm just too much of a fanatic at times - in that, COLLIN joins the nigh impossible rank of artists i can't possibly judge with any fairness or objectivity --an active group i can probably count on one hand-- where my favorite is simply the last one i listened to - still, it seems quite clear to me that this is the best --my favorite-- with COLLIN's name on it, and if you have any doubt then just wait for "part six" to reach through your speakers and slap some sense into you
SINGING KNIVES is selling it on their website and also on discogs
http://singingknivesrecords.co.uk/jon-collin/
audio samples
http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/74050
https://www.mixcloud.com/TheWireMagazine/adventures-in-sound-and-music-hosted-by-derek-walmsley-13-july-2017/
