MICHAEL POTTER AND THE ELECTRIC NATURE “Trance Music” C75 (Garden Portal)

 

I wonder how much use there is for back-porch psychedelia these days, the Appalachian improvisational style that stares up into the crisp and clear night sky way out in the middle of nowhere. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not wondering that because I don’t think it’s viable style or a valid way to express oneself artistically, I just wonder, as a collection of entities tied together because we all belong to the human race, have we positioned ourselves to ignore the devotional in favor of the quick and convenient? I sure hope not. We’d miss out on stuff like Trance Music.

 

Michael Potter, Garden Portal curator and Almanac-er, gets his Electric Nature buddies Michael Pierce and Thom Strickland together every once and a while to perform live in front of Athens, Georgia, audiences, amplified and strangled acoustic guitars clutched tightly in their mitts. The three of them run melodies and tones and arpeggios off each other, the notes combining in heavenly clouds, until an actual, honest-to-god “trance” comes over the players and audience (and listeners at home with cassette tape in hand). They get in the zone, and we get in it with them.

 

It’s hard to put into words what it feels like to be in the center of that trance, but you have 75 minutes to get yourself acclimated and hopefully on the same vibe. But know this – once the embers of your campfire drift into and overlap your view of the stars, it’s all over. You can keep your eyes open or closed, but the results will be the same: Trance Music will become part of your body and the infinite will open itself up to you. You’ll never encounter acoustic guitar music in the same way again, not after this shakes the foundations of everything you believe in.

 

Was that too much?

Remember to believe in something, don't just get stuck in whatever life normally chucks at you. There's a hugeness out there that's beyond even anything you can imagine. Embrace it. Take experiences like Trance Music and use them to make yourself amazing.

 

https://michaelpotter.bandcamp.com/

 

https://theelectricnature.bandcamp.com/

 

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/

 

--Ryan

MATTHEW J. ROLIN “Ohio" C27 & GERYCZ/POWERS/ROLIN “Beacon" C54 (Garden Portal)

Matthew J. Rolin has undeniably mastered a Kottke-esque command of American Primitive Guitar and has also adapted Chasny/Blackshaw/Weathers’ subtle ambient/noise accents & droning bolsterings, along with his recordings, too. His crisp, fumble-free attack dynamics of an ever-resonant, lone steel string are, without a doubt, every bit as spell-binding as LK’s visionary “6 and 12 String Guitar" - AKA - "That Fuckin’ Armadillo Album, Man!”, and should inspire daydreams for the next century of anyone listening…

To see MJR play on his own has to be sumpin’ else, but it’s the super-trio of Gerycz, Powers, & Rolin, two phenomenal lute-shredders teaming up with a magically hyper-enhancing percussionist, that takes everything you’ve ever heard, APG-oriented, and cranks it to the next fuckin’ level, making “Beacon" an indisputably “Must Listen” release*, which puts “Ohio”, as a companion-piece, on its almost “unplugged" coattails, re: “How the fuck are only two people playing that at one time?”

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/album/ohio

and

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/album/beacon

—Jacob An Kittenplan

*I say “release" & not “tape”, cz, of course, it’s been sold out for a while now

JON COLLIN “From a Petrified Forest” (Garden Portal)

Imagine yourself deep in Sweden’s Tyresta National Park, surrounded by nothing but nature, no humans, no noise pollution, no anything except the undisturbed quietude of the Earth in progress. Now imagine that you’ve hiked out there with nothing but an acoustic guitar and some form of recording device (let’s say tape player – we’re a cassette tape site after all) and, after letting the landscape sink in (like really sink in: into your body, your bones, your blood, your brain), you pull the guitar out of its case and let your fingers drift up and down the fretboard. The tune resembles the roaming you’ve already done to get to this point: even, contemplative, internal. Wandering fingers mimic wandering feet.

You stay within yourself so as not to disturb your environs.

Did you imagine all that? Good. Because that’s essentially what Jon Collin did, down to the very last detail, resulting in From a Petrified Forest. He wandered into Tyresta, got away from it all, and plucked his guitar until the sounds merged with the wild outdoors, becoming sort of an ambient soundtrack to a nature documentary. This is all good stuff, as Collin really captures the quiet majesty and beauty of the landscape. It’s perfect music for getting out of the rush of life and into the processes of an alfresco unwinding. Sink into it, and observe.

https://joncollin.bandcamp.com/

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

THE HIGH SHERIFFS “High Sheriffs” (Garden Portal)

The law fought itself, and won. Jacob Sunderlin and Matt Scherger strapped on their six-shooters, their spurs, and their stars, adjusted their ten-gallon hats, and wandered into the center of Lafayette, Indiana, aiming to keep the peace. There they spied guitars and harmonicas and whatnot, and everything changed – the peace would be kept another way. The peace would be kept the High Sheriffs way.

Ten dusty frontier mantras later and everything was sepia, mustaches had grown, tobacco juice had been spit. Back porches had been reclined upon in rockers. There was a feeling of community spirit in the air, a spirit that permeated the townsfolk of Lafayette. The air was fresh and clean, and everyone breathed deeply, eyes adjusting to the middle distance where the new day awaited each and every one of them. Relaxed smiles appeared on all faces, starting from the center outward, like a ripple in a pond.

Jacob Sunderlin and Matt Scherger just went on a-pickin’ and a-singin’, their peace and our peace merging in the air.

https://jacobsunderlin.bandcamp.com/

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan

GARDEN PORTAL BATCH

DURA “Reverberation Hymns”

The latest batch of tapes from the Athens, Georgia, label Garden Portal – a fairly recent venture launched by NULL|Z0NE label head Michael Potter – starts us off with Dura’s “Reverberation Hymns,” a groin-grabbingly delicious set of meditative geetar (yes?) and field-recorded ephemera. So, yeah, you’ll need headphones, what with all the “reverberation” and “hymns” and whatnot that you’ll get on this release. A lengthy “song” cycle (hymns, remember!) by Mattson Ogg, “Reverberation Hymns” finds the musician turning inward, allowing the music that he’s making work on himself more than anything. These tunes are incredibly personal, it’s delightfully obvious, and their length and repetitive nature act as healing pulses to the psychological center. What Dura doesn’t offer are absolutes, or even answers. Instead, Ogg is content to let the music happen to him, to be the catalyst for self-betterment or healing or whatever. This is what the celestial singing of angels would sound like if it was distilled down into whatever it is Dura’s doing at all times.

ALEXANDER “Untitled”

Alexander, like Madonna, Cher, Prince, and Lebron, only uses a single name, and that’s all that matters. Because what Lebron can do with a basketball, Alexander can do with a fingerpicked acoustic guitar. Too bad there’s not some kind of “National Guitar Association” like there is an NBA, because Alexander would be an all-star every year. Over 22 short tracks, most lasting less than two minutes but a couple extending past three, Alexander joins the folk greats around the campfire with lovingly crafted instrumental passages that will likely leave you weeping, or at least nostalgic. Well, except when he plays the guitar really fast, then he sounds like he’s auditioning for Joan of Arc or something. All of it’s a great mix, an excellent showcase for the label and a charming introduction (for me, anyway) to a remarkable talent.

https://gardenportal.bandcamp.com/

--Ryan