Just when you think we’ve hit the bottom of the John Fahey reissue barrel, Drag City stitches together a collection that has grabbed my ear more than any other Fahey record I’ve heard in the last few years. Recorded between 1995-96 (just before his ‘rediscovery’ of the late 1990s), this collection places Fahey in boardinghouse experimental mode. The intricate primitive guitar that he’s known for is pared back on this release, with shots of riffs and turn arounds placed alongside Fahey’s Fugs-esque vocal chanting and throat singing, through to huge cracked chords of slide guitar all treated processed through an Echoplex/tape machine/electronics. Not necessarily what you’d immediately expect from him, but also undeniably Fahey in its weirdness and bringing the past back into the present!-Mitch
