Mark McGuire - Tidings/Amethyst Waves

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5...according to our Business Lady on Thu 10 Jun, 2010.

I wish I could pinpoint the quote at the beginning of this LP (it might be from the movie 'Out of Sight' at a guess)... Anyway, on with the review. You might recognise McGuire's name as one part of Emeralds, Sun Watcher and the awesome Skyramps (with Daniel 'Oneohtrix Point Never' Lopatin) but DAMN! It all pales in comparison to this awesome solo outing. Originally released on tape a while back and now available on CD and silky wax 'Tidings/Amethyst' sounds masterful and epic to these humble ears. Pure astro-travel space ambience that ticks all sorts of boxes for me. There's hints of Growing, Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Roedelius and Fuck Buttons to name but a few comparisons that spring to mind but this could be better than all that stuff combined (maybe... It's my first listen... What can I say, I'm over excited). It's basically all the best non-rhythmic Krautrock stuff mixed up with the current crop of American artists aiming to recreate that sound for young ears. I don't have time to explore all four sides now but from what I've heard so far this comes recommended BIG TIME! Bit expensive on vinyl but totally worth it. Can't wait to get this baby home. Ace!

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Trying to put the last 15 years of music into context, you d be hard pressed to get anyone to agree on a single thing. If anything, this period has been a collective convergence of all things cool-sounding: naïve experimentalism, academic composition, art-rock synthesis, electronic nihilism/flagellation, and, well, everything else. MARK MCGUIRE could muddy anyone s interpretation of the contemporary canon with his buddies in the triadic mega-unit, EMERALDS, his collaborative outings in SUN WATCHER and SKYRAMPS (with Daniel Oneohtrix Point Never Lopatin), and his prolific, yet well-executed, solo work. Have you heard his shredability, incomprehensible astral traveling and meditative neutron stasis on any of those solo jams, the dude must be ancient!? Truth is, Mark Mcguire is a youngin , not a refuge of the 70s. Nor is he mining unfamiliar territory; he produces something old and familiar, yet it sounds so fresh and necessary for today. Originally released as limited edition cassettes and masterfully cleaned up for this definitive release by JAMES PLOTKIN, Tidings/Amethyst Waves finds McGuire packing 60-plus minutes with trance-inducing, melodic guitar intricacies, an occasional wall-of-squall reminiscent of Mizutani riding a thunder horse, and filaments of a drifting stratosphere where organic synthed-out solos are nestled in tight. With this release, Mark McGuire has hatched a true American Euro-vision utilizing major shifts in the music as language paradigm. No joke, this is where Wyld Stallyns is heading in the year 2398 A.G. and Tidings/Amethyst Waves is as essential as anything in the Emeralds catalog. Edition of 1,000.

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