Jon Collin - High Peak Selections (Vinyl LP)

Here’s one of Winebox Press’s rare vinyl outings, this time from slide guitar droner Jon Collin, apparently a continuation of his two ‘High Peak Vibrations’ cassettes on this same label and Giant Hell. It’s got six improvisations in total, taken from performances in Manchester, Salford and Sheffield during 2012.

It’s quite lo-fi stuff with roomy acoustics and plenty of space to the sound as Collin manoeuvres his way around the fretboard delicately and patiently, mixing drones, fingerpicked twanging and slide guitar wibble along with a fair smattering of jarring and visceral fret buzz and string squeak. It’s a slow moving and very physical journey full of dusky splay-fingered little musical shapes, string twang and harmonic ding, Collin’s hypnotic yet unpredictable style never letting the listener get completely comfortable, but not alienating them with impenetrable harshness either. If semi-abstract solo guitar improvisations are your bag this isn’t bad at all!