Search - John Fahey :: City of Refuge

Most innovative album in years

05/19/1999

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you don't think that there are great songs on this with some great guitar playing then you obviously didn't listen to cuts like Chelsey Silver, Please Come Home or City Of Refuge III. But what sets this album apart is his courage to experiment which most people of his age are usually afraid to do. They usually want to give something to people that they can immediately understand, that they don't have to think too much about. Well, to Fahey, it's all about art, just like it's always been to him. Yeah, there are moments of noisy self-indulgence, but if you really listen, it's all just emotion. That's really all he's ever done, just played his emotions."

Backporch Sonic Youth

11/06/1998

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For certain it has little to do soundwise w/ Fahey's more traditional guitar stylings, but plenty of assocation and reference to his earlier experiments in musique concrete. Sounds like some weird cross between Derek Bailey and John Cage maybe. I especially enjoy the opening overture, which sounds like Fahey jamming with an old noisy refrigerator motor. This CD is grating at times but I've got a lot of respect for Fahey for announcing his 'comeback' with such a thoroughly uncompromising disc of new material."