massacre

Lonely Heart

'Lonely Heart' is the devastating return of Fred Frith's power trio (along with Bill Laswell on bass and Fred Maher on drums) after a seven year absence and as you can imagine is a destructive and challenging listening experience. There's something beautiful I think about listening to musicians clearly so at ease with each other and with their instruments and here we see Fred Frith disregarding the experimentally-minded guitar abuse he's become so well known for in recent years and going back to flat-out fretwork. Don't worry, we're not into prog territory (well, maybe) and this is powerful stuff, abrasive at times and almost anthemic at others and at all times quite shocking to listen to and hear the insane skill at work. It's like when you hear a band like the Battles and have to wonder how much practice these guys put in before they were able to pull off such technical manoeuvres, and then how much more practice it must have taken to disregard it all in favour of a sound more punky. Massacre are of course one of the best bands of their kind (hell, they opened for Metallica at Roskilde...) and 'Lonely Heart' will not disappoint anyone desperate for more from the band. Totally exhilarating music.