JOHN FAHEY
Proofs and Refutations
Boomkat Product Review:
Mindblowing mid ‘90s recordings of avant-bluesman Fahey in his Salem, OR boarding room surface in a vital, previously unknown piece of his sprawling and singular oeuvre.
Travelling from reverberating, unaccompanied vocal works for tape, to death blues exhortations, blistering amp worship, and his more typical finger-picking folk; ‘Proofs and Refutations’ is a staggering posthumous addition to John Fahey’s 40+ year body of work, arguably thrilling like the recent revelation of Arthur Russell’s addendum to ‘World of Echo’. We’re no experts on Fahey, a near-mythical figure who wildly expanded the countryfolk and blues vernacular during the late c20th, but a working knowledge of his music tells us this set is among his farthest out, and surely echoes the sort of styles he was putting on legendary mixtapes made during the same era, which was mostly spent at a boarding house during the years after contracting the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 1986.
Bookended by the startling holler of ‘All the Rains’, which is also pretty much retitled as ‘Evening, Not Night (Pt.2)’ and leads into the stunning closer of psychedelic dissonance and wail with ‘Untitled (w/o Rain)’, the session opens a unmissable window on his life during this difficult period. We find him channelling throat singing like a whiskey-gargling Attila Csihar over slide guitar in ‘F for Fake’, while ‘the Morning’ parts are more typical of his impressionistic avant-blues improvisations, also inflected with folk and classical aspects, while ‘For LMC 2’ sends us reeling into death blues amp worship, picking out razing melodies from its billowing wire wool clouds of discord. Special shit. Not to be missed!
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Boomkat Product Review:
Mindblowing mid ‘90s recordings of avant-bluesman Fahey in his Salem, OR boarding room surface in a vital, previously unknown piece of his sprawling and singular oeuvre.
Travelling from reverberating, unaccompanied vocal works for tape, to death blues exhortations, blistering amp worship, and his more typical finger-picking folk; ‘Proofs and Refutations’ is a staggering posthumous addition to John Fahey’s 40+ year body of work, arguably thrilling like the recent revelation of Arthur Russell’s addendum to ‘World of Echo’. We’re no experts on Fahey, a near-mythical figure who wildly expanded the countryfolk and blues vernacular during the late c20th, but a working knowledge of his music tells us this set is among his farthest out, and surely echoes the sort of styles he was putting on legendary mixtapes made during the same era, which was mostly spent at a boarding house during the years after contracting the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 1986.
Bookended by the startling holler of ‘All the Rains’, which is also pretty much retitled as ‘Evening, Not Night (Pt.2)’ and leads into the stunning closer of psychedelic dissonance and wail with ‘Untitled (w/o Rain)’, the session opens a unmissable window on his life during this difficult period. We find him channelling throat singing like a whiskey-gargling Attila Csihar over slide guitar in ‘F for Fake’, while ‘the Morning’ parts are more typical of his impressionistic avant-blues improvisations, also inflected with folk and classical aspects, while ‘For LMC 2’ sends us reeling into death blues amp worship, picking out razing melodies from its billowing wire wool clouds of discord. Special shit. Not to be missed!
Boomkat Product Review:
Mindblowing mid ‘90s recordings of avant-bluesman Fahey in his Salem, OR boarding room surface in a vital, previously unknown piece of his sprawling and singular oeuvre.
Travelling from reverberating, unaccompanied vocal works for tape, to death blues exhortations, blistering amp worship, and his more typical finger-picking folk; ‘Proofs and Refutations’ is a staggering posthumous addition to John Fahey’s 40+ year body of work, arguably thrilling like the recent revelation of Arthur Russell’s addendum to ‘World of Echo’. We’re no experts on Fahey, a near-mythical figure who wildly expanded the countryfolk and blues vernacular during the late c20th, but a working knowledge of his music tells us this set is among his farthest out, and surely echoes the sort of styles he was putting on legendary mixtapes made during the same era, which was mostly spent at a boarding house during the years after contracting the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 1986.
Bookended by the startling holler of ‘All the Rains’, which is also pretty much retitled as ‘Evening, Not Night (Pt.2)’ and leads into the stunning closer of psychedelic dissonance and wail with ‘Untitled (w/o Rain)’, the session opens a unmissable window on his life during this difficult period. We find him channelling throat singing like a whiskey-gargling Attila Csihar over slide guitar in ‘F for Fake’, while ‘the Morning’ parts are more typical of his impressionistic avant-blues improvisations, also inflected with folk and classical aspects, while ‘For LMC 2’ sends us reeling into death blues amp worship, picking out razing melodies from its billowing wire wool clouds of discord. Special shit. Not to be missed!
Boomkat Product Review:
Mindblowing mid ‘90s recordings of avant-bluesman Fahey in his Salem, OR boarding room surface in a vital, previously unknown piece of his sprawling and singular oeuvre.
Travelling from reverberating, unaccompanied vocal works for tape, to death blues exhortations, blistering amp worship, and his more typical finger-picking folk; ‘Proofs and Refutations’ is a staggering posthumous addition to John Fahey’s 40+ year body of work, arguably thrilling like the recent revelation of Arthur Russell’s addendum to ‘World of Echo’. We’re no experts on Fahey, a near-mythical figure who wildly expanded the countryfolk and blues vernacular during the late c20th, but a working knowledge of his music tells us this set is among his farthest out, and surely echoes the sort of styles he was putting on legendary mixtapes made during the same era, which was mostly spent at a boarding house during the years after contracting the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 1986.
Bookended by the startling holler of ‘All the Rains’, which is also pretty much retitled as ‘Evening, Not Night (Pt.2)’ and leads into the stunning closer of psychedelic dissonance and wail with ‘Untitled (w/o Rain)’, the session opens a unmissable window on his life during this difficult period. We find him channelling throat singing like a whiskey-gargling Attila Csihar over slide guitar in ‘F for Fake’, while ‘the Morning’ parts are more typical of his impressionistic avant-blues improvisations, also inflected with folk and classical aspects, while ‘For LMC 2’ sends us reeling into death blues amp worship, picking out razing melodies from its billowing wire wool clouds of discord. Special shit. Not to be missed!
2024 Re-press
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Boomkat Product Review:
Mindblowing mid ‘90s recordings of avant-bluesman Fahey in his Salem, OR boarding room surface in a vital, previously unknown piece of his sprawling and singular oeuvre.
Travelling from reverberating, unaccompanied vocal works for tape, to death blues exhortations, blistering amp worship, and his more typical finger-picking folk; ‘Proofs and Refutations’ is a staggering posthumous addition to John Fahey’s 40+ year body of work, arguably thrilling like the recent revelation of Arthur Russell’s addendum to ‘World of Echo’. We’re no experts on Fahey, a near-mythical figure who wildly expanded the countryfolk and blues vernacular during the late c20th, but a working knowledge of his music tells us this set is among his farthest out, and surely echoes the sort of styles he was putting on legendary mixtapes made during the same era, which was mostly spent at a boarding house during the years after contracting the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus in 1986.
Bookended by the startling holler of ‘All the Rains’, which is also pretty much retitled as ‘Evening, Not Night (Pt.2)’ and leads into the stunning closer of psychedelic dissonance and wail with ‘Untitled (w/o Rain)’, the session opens a unmissable window on his life during this difficult period. We find him channelling throat singing like a whiskey-gargling Attila Csihar over slide guitar in ‘F for Fake’, while ‘the Morning’ parts are more typical of his impressionistic avant-blues improvisations, also inflected with folk and classical aspects, while ‘For LMC 2’ sends us reeling into death blues amp worship, picking out razing melodies from its billowing wire wool clouds of discord. Special shit. Not to be missed!
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