Forsyth, Chris
Paranoid Cat
Paranoid Cat" is Philadelphia guitarist Chris Forsyth's third solo album and first for Family Vineyard -- a sprawling, harmonically-charged sidelong suite backed by a clutch of compositions merging raw and delicate American roots traditions. After more than a decade trotting the globe and recording with a mess of today's avant garde greats, plus co-leading the brazenly absurd "Peeesseye", Forsyth has arranged a full-band to accompany his electric six-string vision of interlocking arpeggios and maximalist peaks. The kaleidoscopic arrangements of "Paranoid Cat" are a leap from the stripped down attack on Forsyth's hotly acclaimed 2009 "Dreams", a long-gone tiny edition LP that will be reissued by Family Vineyard later this year. "Paranoid Cat" is the result of Forsyth performing with a band over recent years and bringing together drummer Mike Pride, bassist Peter Kerlin, pianist Hans Chew (member of D. CHARLES SPEER & HELIX), pedal steel player Marc Orleans (SUNBURNED, D. CHARLES SPEER, etc) Koen Holtkamp (of MOUNTAINS) on synths, trumpeter Nate Wooley and others into the studio. The side-long, three part opener "Paranoid Cat" spirals out from a groove that owes as much to Richard Lloyd/Television as John Fahey's "America" opus and continues through a transformation tempered by Chew's piano but eventually breaks into a neo-psychedelic wall of sound. It's a startling epic masterwork for 2011 and beyond. A much shorter, acoustic version of this song kicked off last year's "Imaginational Anthem IV: New Possibilities" compilation on Tompkins Square. The second side showcases Forsyth's depth with the aptly named "New Pharmacist Boogie" -- a ripper in the vein of a one-string John Lee Hooker pulse study dedicated to departed friend Jack Rose -- and the emotionally devastating sustained blues "Front Street Drone." "Anniversary Day" fuses a lumbering pedal steel, marimba, trumpet and more into a cosmopolitan finale nodding toward Van Dyke Parks handiwork.