75 Dollar Bill – “Wood / Metal / Plastic / Pattern / Rhythm / Rock” – [Thin Wrist]

Thurston Hunger   7/14/2016   12-inch, A Library

Man, I so want to enter this into KFJC’s “blues library”
although it also looks well past our own country’s
muddy deltas and Bo Diddley beats to points much further
east. Some of those mantra riffs are akin to ancient gnawa
spirals from Africa or a breeze off the Sahel Sounds
(desert scorched electric guitar). Che Chen who has summoned
Tony Conrad and other power players on violin in the
past takes up the sizzling six strings here. His rudimentary
and insistent playing does feel raw and instant, so maybe he
didn’t just disassemble Agadez djinns, but stumbled upon ’em
himself, either way it’s just great. The faster, the more fury,
for me the better (“Cummins Falls” and “Beni Said” woohoo!).
Rick Brown is on the other side of this funky bill, with home
slapped together percussion and some handbuilt horns which add
a charge to Chen’s guitar. Sometimes Brown fits right into the
overdriven halo of sound so tightly that you have to listen
twice to pluck the horn out, other times it sounds like Brown
is wounded over behind a mountain as on “I’m Not Tryting To
Wake Up.” Despite the comparisons, Chen and Brown have their
own brand of beauty going on, and while it will hit bliss for
fans like me of Joshua Abrams’ guimbri bumblebees, I love the
idea of some Junior Kimbrough fans swarming to this modern
duo by way of KFJC’s buzzing hive and archives.
-Thurston Hunger