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LP
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NN 028LP
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Paul Metzger's choices of instruments involve strings and necks, but he is not content to leave them in their original state. On 1300, his ninth solo album and third for Nero's Neptune, Metzger performs on modified guitar and 23-string banjo. The first of the album's two side-long improvisations, "Meend for Shaista," displays the earliest of Metzger's experiments in modification, a revamped Yamaha guitar first displayed on his 2005 debut. The instrument has evolved considerably since then. The neck is now covered in fretless steel, many sympathetic strings have appeared, and a ride cymbal has been attached to the bottom. Metzger applies a percussive string technique and an unorthodox flamenco approach with his right hand, while his gliding left reveals the hidden beauty between the notes. As the piece unfolds, Metzger accompanies himself on tabla while simultaneously playing the guitar; it is at times hard to believe the recording is a one-pass live improvisation made by a single player. On the second side, "Death's Other Kingdom," Metzger breaks out his 23-string banjo. The banjo has extra strings added (including a zither-like spray of 13 fanning out over the drum head), with the skin and sides of the banjo utilized for percussive effect. The piece begins with a slow-burning bowed section. Metzger's bowing has evolved from single-note glissandos into a full-neck chordal style, showing impressive strides in development and refinement. Echoes of North Indian classical music, 12-tone music, and Asian musical forms inform his work. Once the bow is set aside, Metzger's dexterous finger-work and flat picking bring forth a thematic arc, building to blinding velocity as the piece comes to a climax. The cover of the album features the artwork of Metzger's paternal great-grandfather Max Kleiter, whose drawings appear in early issues of the German art nouveau publication Der Jungend. The piece dates from 1901, but is as timeless and singular in style as the music contained within.
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CD
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NN 026CD
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Tombeaux, the much-anticipated new album from Paul Metzger, marks our alchemist's third appearance on Nero's Neptune, following critically-acclaimed contributions to labels like Locust and Honest Jon's. Metzger summons the spirits of musical Appalachian forefathers, guitarist Django Reinhardt and classical sitarist Nikhil Banerjee, among others, weaving a peerless, highly individualistic music that sounds unlike anyone but himself. Metzger's playing doesn't imitate raga structures so much as use those modal figures as a starting point. He employs dazzling, breviloquent string-plucks on the main banjo strings, while producing rhythmic, droning textures on the cross-strings of an added bridge. Some have suggested similarities to the works of John Fahey or Sandy Bull, but Metzger's modus operandi doesn't constitute a mirroring of those styles; rather, he composes and operates apart from their music, in an insular and altogether separate universe. In the process, Metzger transcends and expands the lexicon in a wholly organic manner.
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LP
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NN 026LP
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LP version on 180 gram vinyl. Tombeaux, the much-anticipated new album from Paul Metzger, marks our alchemist's third appearance on Nero's Neptune, following critically-acclaimed contributions to labels like Locust and Honest Jon's. Metzger summons the spirits of musical Appalachian forefathers, guitarist Django Reinhardt and classical sitarist Nikhil Banerjee, among others, weaving a peerless, highly individualistic music that sounds unlike anyone but himself. Metzger's playing doesn't imitate raga structures so much as use those modal figures as a starting point. He employs dazzling, breviloquent string-plucks on the main banjo strings, while producing rhythmic, droning textures on the cross-strings of an added bridge. Some have suggested similarities to the works of John Fahey or Sandy Bull, but Metzger's modus operandi doesn't constitute a mirroring of those styles; rather, he composes and operates apart from their music, in an insular and altogether separate universe. In the process, Metzger transcends and expands the lexicon in a wholly organic manner.
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LP
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ROAR 014LP
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2022 restock. Paul Metzger continues to pile up the plaudits from critics and peers alike for his virtuosic string-slinging, gaining notice through Three Improvisations On Modified Banjo (2005) and his split LP with Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano on Roaratorio (2006). Metzger's modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although the compositions on Gedanken Splitter are informed by much more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as Deliverance (2007), this is a more jagged and aggressive (although no less accessible) affair. Metzger winds these improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and while never turning completely abstract, Gedanken Splitter moves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. This is mesmerizing and singular playing. "If Paul Metzger's last album Deliverance evinced his yearning to free the banjo from the shackles of convention, Gedanken Splitter shows what comes after the chains hit the earth; Metzger's attack is unmatched in the new American Primitive camp." --Bill Meyer, The Wire.
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