December 23–30, 1999

disc quicks|rock/pop

Jeremy Boyle

Songs from the Guitar Solos

(Southern)

Sweet audio irony. This recording samples, edits and affects fragments from the guitar solos of Ace Frehley, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix and others, then renders them unrecognizable. It’s a clever idea from Jeremy Boyle, the technophile from Chicago’s indie prog-rockers Joan of Arc: make the most bold-faced moments of rock ’n’ roll into anonymous ciphers. But clever musical ideas are like guitar solos: They can either showcase a musician’s technical and artistic skill or simply emphasize his excessive self-indulgence. Boyle happens to pull off the former. He turns his ostentatious source material into delicate whispers, iridescent chimes and stammering oscillations that would make Eno and Oval smile. Boyle names the six songs after the bands from which they were borrowed. Like an alchemist he transforms the heavy metal dross of "Sabbath" and "AC/DC" into malleable golden tones and tinkling sonic trinkets. Perhaps "Jimi" explores the minor-chord musings of "Third Stone from the Sun." Maybe "Zeppelin" emphasizes the most abstract moments of the "Whole Lotta Love" bridge/breakdown. It’s difficult to decode, based on the result, the songs’ origins. Regardless, Boyle creates a productive aural ambiguity that allows the listener to invent and reinvent meaning and significance. It’s difficult to resist making thematic connections to the sources, whether they are there or not, which adds a new layer to the listening experience.

—Chris Nosal

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