Manuel Gottsching - Inventions For Electric Guitar LP

Label: MG.Art

Our Review:

After the initial implosion of Ash Ra Tempel in 1974, Manuel Gottsching traded the vertiginous, self-immolating riffs that formed the quintessence of kosmische music for a more earthbound guitar art charting inner-space, inverting the effect of his group's sonic overload to create music as patient and unfussy as it is propulsive and hypnotic.

The novelty implicit in its title everywhere enlivens the music of Gottsching's solo debut, Inventions For Electric Guitar. On its two longer tracks, ostinato guitar phrases form a morse-code low end, a rhythmic foundation then crosshatched with echo-treated melody lines and, later, fuzz-chewed blues leads corkscrewing through the arrangements. Gottsching creates via four-track and delay unit the illusion of music made with a sequencer or synthesizer (and so too anticipates the reverberant influence of his also just reissued E2-E4). Between these sits a gorgeous piece of overdyed ambience, "Quasarsphere," harmonic swells cutting through the sheen of undulating glissando. A uniquely self-contained masterpiece, the crystalline rhythmic ecosystem of Inventions marks a watershed moment in the history of rock-adjacent guitar music.