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viewing 1 To 13 of 13 items
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2LP
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UNROCK 026LP
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Saginaw Racket, the new double album by Sir Richard Bishop, features the first new recordings from the former Sun City Girls guitarist in over five years. It is a singular work for electric guitar in four parts with each part being a full side. Each of the four parts were recorded in one take and they are presented in the order they were originally recorded. But this is also a circular work with no fixed beginning or end. One can start the record with any of the four sides, with the remaining sides then played in order. Known for his interpretations of Spanish, North African, Middle and Far Eastern guitar and string compositions, Richard Bishop never remains long in any one musical territory. There are no Eastern or exotic touches here. It is more reminiscent of early '70s underground rock (unrock). The entire work is improvised, with recurring motifs and melodies. It is similar in approach to Neil Young's Dead Man Soundtrack, but Saginaw Racket is louder, more energetic and more complex, while retaining its cinematic quality. The tone of the guitar is the voice of the record. It is noisy at times but it is not "noise." It definitely is a racket, though, and it unleashes all the pent-up energy of the last few years, during much of which, SRB never even picked up a guitar. So in a sense Richard Bishop is returning to his roots in the form of a spontaneous soundtrack to old Saginaw where he grew up and first learned to play the guitar -- a Saginaw that certainly doesn't exist anymore. Saginaw Racket is limited to 400 copies pressed on 140g black vinyl.
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LP
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DC 769LP
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2020 release. "Five years after Tangier Sessions, Sir Richard Bishop, we presume, is back from his travels around the world. With Oneiric Formulary, he's dug deeper into his bag of extra-musical gestures from the eternal and unknowable, along with a few sounds we might recognize, all transmuted for our mortal ears' enjoyment. The last couple of Sir Richard Bishop releases on Drag City were genre exercises of sorts -- The Freak of Araby explored the musical legacy of late Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid while Tangier Sessions explored the sound of an obscure 19th century guitar that Rick had acquired from a mysterious Swiss luthier. The title Oneiric Formulary, may sit contrarily on the tongue -- but we may refer to it as representing 'a collection of dream states' -- which means we like it! With such a lofty goal in mind and at his fingertips, Sir Rick returns to the approach of his DC debut, Polytheistic Fragments -- a different sound, a different instrument, for nearly every track, drawing from the music of all nations, including and especially that infamous republic with only one person on the census roll (initials SRB). It's got mad variety, the kind you don't see much of anymore -- an Ed Sullivan kind of evening out, with some spinning plates, dancing mice, and of course, an appearance from Zippy the Chimp. What it means is that when you drop the needle/raise the laser/press the head to tape/or do whatever happens when you stream it, you've got sounds that don't sound at first like guitars -- because they're not! Then you've got sounds that sound initially like guitars -- because they are! Sir Richard found joy in not only finding unlikely sounds, but also writing a fake jingle, soundtracking an unreleased film, reflecting on Southern origins, going concrète (Beatles-style!), using computers (Sir Rick, no!), and accidentally juxtaposing Frippian electric guitar drone against the grit of ol' school acoustic guitar while thinking of sci-fi, as well as revisiting (t)rusty old forms such as Americana, classical, gypsy and raga. It's all trotted out to phantasmic effect, as it brings to us with the freshness, the roar of the old crowd as they see, smell and hear the greatest show on earth."
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7"
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UNROCK 030-2EP
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When internally the plan came up to release a bunch of vinyl singles for Unrock's 30th anniversary as an entity, Richard just like his brother Alan, the other keyholder of Sun City Girls legacy was among the first to take a deep look into his archives. Out came two shining pearls from different periods of his long career. "Taqasim For Omar (acoustic)" was recorded in Seattle in 2008. It was recorded before the Sir changed his mind and recorded the track with an all-electric band again for his The Freak of Araby LP (2009). "Magrebh Blues" was recorded in Tangier, 2018 when Bishop recorded Tangier Sessions in Morocco. The track came out too bluesy for what Richard wanted to show with the album, but it is the only track he played on the mysterious guitar which beautifully sounds like a Magrebhinian blues. Photography by Hans van der Linden, realization by Philip Lethen. Limited, one-time limited run on black vinyl.
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Cassette
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DC 618CS
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CD
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DC 618CD
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"The tone of the guitar and Sir Richard's gentle, loving touch with it hold forth from the first moment of Tangier Sessions, sitting clear and true in the home-recorded night air above the city. The album sequence is the precise order of the songs as they were conceived and recorded. Rick's all over the neck in the early going while sorting through the dynamics of the instrument -- in fact, guitarophiles, the first couple of songs feature Sir Richard Bishop playing without a plectrum for the first time ever! Towards the end of the first side of Tangier Sessions, Sir Richard and guitar begin to chill out and cut loose in a different way -- arriving in the moment that was imagined for them, they stretch out, finding themselves in open space with fewer changes. This is a place where a player like Sir Richard Bishop can relax while remaining totally focused and present, hearing what the guitar and he are capable of in real time. The discoveries of side one give way to the trilogy of songs that comprise the second side, and the issues presented by 'Mirage' are revisited from another angle, another spot on the map in 'International Zone,' leaving finally a sense of journey completed in the serene moments of 'Let It Come Down.' The narrative that builds as a function of this (noble)man-guitar dialogue gives Tangier Sessions a visceral punch that makes for a singular listening experience, even in the crowded realm of solo acoustic guitar albums. Nobody plays the guitar like Sir Richard Bishop -- and on Tangier Sessions, he's found a guitar that nobody but him plays either."
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LP
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DC 618LP
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2022 restock; LP version. "The tone of the guitar and Sir Richard's gentle, loving touch with it hold forth from the first moment of Tangier Sessions, sitting clear and true in the home-recorded night air above the city. The album sequence is the precise order of the songs as they were conceived and recorded. Rick's all over the neck in the early going while sorting through the dynamics of the instrument -- in fact, guitarophiles, the first couple of songs feature Sir Richard Bishop playing without a plectrum for the first time ever! Towards the end of the first side of Tangier Sessions, Sir Richard and guitar begin to chill out and cut loose in a different way -- arriving in the moment that was imagined for them, they stretch out, finding themselves in open space with fewer changes. This is a place where a player like Sir Richard Bishop can relax while remaining totally focused and present, hearing what the guitar and he are capable of in real time. The discoveries of side one give way to the trilogy of songs that comprise the second side, and the issues presented by 'Mirage' are revisited from another angle, another spot on the map in 'International Zone,' leaving finally a sense of journey completed in the serene moments of 'Let It Come Down.' The narrative that builds as a function of this (noble)man-guitar dialogue gives Tangier Sessions a visceral punch that makes for a singular listening experience, even in the crowded realm of solo acoustic guitar albums. Nobody plays the guitar like Sir Richard Bishop -- and on Tangier Sessions, he's found a guitar that nobody but him plays either."
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10"
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UNROCK 002EP
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Road to Siam shows Richard Bishop on a musical trip from the Iberian Peninsula all along through North Africa and the Orient to the Far East. "Mekong" is an improvisation on 6-string guitar based on the particular sounds of a traditional three-stringed instrument known as a phin, which originated in Laos. "Mekong," which was recorded in Phitsanulok, Thailand in December 2013, is a typical Richard Bishop track, elegantly liquid and hypnotic and Bishop's first new track in years. The B-side of the 20-minute long vinyl-only 10" features "Alhambra Drag," "Sand Shuffle" & "Coronado's Broom," which are highlights taken from digital-only available albums. Limited edition pressing of 500 copies.
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LP
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VDSQ 008LP
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warehouse find, last copies. 2014 release. Solo acoustic recordings from the master guitarist, Sir Richard Bishop returns to familiar themes and introduces new ideas simultaneously on this tour de force performance of his singular style.
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LP
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UNROCK 001LP
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Repressed. After having released records on labels such as Locust, Drag City and John Fahey's Revenant, Richard Bishop's The Unrock Tapes contains eight complete tracks, six of which are highlights taken from earlier tour CD-Rs that were released on micro-editions years ago. They have never been available on vinyl. Two completely new and unreleased songs make this album even more special. Bishop's guitar-playing skills contain a variety of influences. They could arouse the absurd impression that his work has something to do with what one would call "world music." But his playing gets its fire and fascination from being irreverent in Bishop's unique way. The spirit of his former outfit Sun City Girls is still floating through the album, even if it is not the musical intention; however, it gives an impression of an underlying ever-increasing and developing personal signature. On the one hand, Bishop uses influences respectfully (Omar Khorshid), and on the other hand his style is typically disrespectful. His guitar-playing is delicate and hybrid; because of his subtle skills, Bishop is able to express himself in a wide range of styles without losing authenticity. That his ragas fray out and end up in distortion and his Flamenco sounds Arabic, is also part of his game. Bishop is a Grand-seigneur of the modern American Underground and a big part of its substance and integrity. He is a magician with his guitar; still a winking prankster. Variable and never too predictable. That is also what makes him special. Unrock in its purest form. Released in a limited pressing on 140 gram clear, white vinyl.
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CD
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DC 398CD
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"Another album of acoustic guitar music from Sir Richard Bishop-- are you 'freakin' nuts? The Freak Of Araby is a new direction for our distinguished gentleman, and just in the nick of time as well. Sir Rick's had it up to here with solo acoustic guitar records! The Freak Of Araby isn't even a solo record! And there's no acoustic guitar on it! So let's have no more of this kind of talk. Over his years with Sun City Girls, Richard Bishop threw a wide variety of music and sound against the wall -- and all of it stuck. Among those who know, he's reasonably fluent in any number of international music traditions, playing them for (mostly) fun and (sometimes) profit all over the place. The Freak Of Araby is the debut of Sir Richard Bishop and his Freak of Araby Ensemble, a talented quartet of players getting deep into the Middle Eastern mystic with hand drums, percussion, bass, drums, electric guitars and a heavy dose of Moroccan chanters, all of it captured with depth, detail and sympathy for the eternal enigma by engineer Scott Colburn. But a Sir Richard Bishop album with a backing band -- how did this happen? After recording a cover of 'Ka'an Azzaman,' written by Elias Rahbani, one of Lebanon's finest songwriters, something dawned on Sir Richard. Half-Lebanese by birth (it didn't just occur to him later), he found himself suddenly possessed to really dig into Middle Eastern sounds. A pair of original melodies not fully developed at a prior recording session had the Arabic inspiration, so these were reattacked and finished in short order. Soon, Sir Richard's head was flooded with some of the classic sounds spun for him by his grandfather back in his (way) younger days, like Farid Al-Atrache, Oum Kalthoum and Fairuz, along with other personal favorites, such as the guitarists Omar Khorshid and Mike Hegazi. In addition to the studio improvisation, 'Taqasim For Omar,' the whole of The Freak Of Araby is dedicated to these inspiring players. Check 'em out. In addition to his soul-stirring electric guitar playing, Sir Richard grabbed a couple of Moroccan chanters and blew the house down on 'Blood-Stained Sands,' providing an epic (not to mention epochal, heh heh) finish to this journey to the center of one-half of the family tree. This is music meant to be played live, and Sir Richard's Freak Of Araby Ensemble intends to play it everywhere there's interest in hearing it. So get your Freak on."
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LP
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DC 398LP
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2012 repress, LP version.
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CD
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DC 349CD
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"It goes without saying that Polytheistic Fragments is an instrumental release -- who among us would want it otherwise? In the tradition of his classic debut, Salvador Kali, this new record features equal amounts of improvisation and composition. Sir Richard's powers lie in his ability to captivate with just the sound of his guitar, but he doesn't completely abandon studio processes, which allow Polytheistic Fragments to communicate a greater wholeness: all Sir Rick, all the time, if you will. We have come to expect a few solo acoustic guitar pieces with the gypsy stylings of his hero, Django Reinhardt -- and as if to tenderize our consciousness and prepare it for the ride, 'Cross My Palm with Silver' meets and exceeds our expectations. 'Rub 'Al Khali' is an ode to the oud, a northern African lute of sorts. On 'Free Masonic Guitar,' Sir Richard manifests free form acoustic playing wholly in his own style. Peppering the mix are the sounds of electric guitar and lap steel guitar, bringing contrast and color. 'Hecate's Dream' is a dreamy praise to a dark Greek Goddess, but 'Tennessee Porch Swing' and 'Canned Goods and Firearms' switch gears to good old down home Americana and country twang. Sir Richard is renowned for his prowess and mastery with the guitar, but the piano playing on Polytheistic Fragments shows a fluid, meditative style. 'Saraswati' is a lengthy river piece bathed in Hindustani serenity, while 'Cemetery Games' is a short celebratory skeletal dance, with more light-heartedness than spook. In a record with so many spirits, Bishop fills in the space where necessary and rounds out the feeling with catchy tunes such as 'Elysium Number Five' and 'Ecstasies in the Open Air.' Polytheistic Fragments shows that the divinely inspired Sir Richard Bishop cannot be contained in one form."
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LP
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DC 349LP
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2023 restock; LP version. "It goes without saying that Polytheistic Fragments is an instrumental release -- who among us would want it otherwise? In the tradition of his classic debut, Salvador Kali, this record features equal amounts of improvisation and composition. Sir Richard's powers lie in his ability to captivate with just the sound of his guitar, but he doesn't completely abandon studio processes, which allow Polytheistic Fragments to communicate a greater wholeness: all Sir Rick, all the time, if you will."
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viewing 1 To 13 of 13 items
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