Anamnestic Tincture
(Roaratorio - ROAR15) LP $17.25
The performances on this live album by virtuoso musical carpenter Paul Metzger were culled from many hours of concert recordings. Side one, the public debut of his modified banjo, was recorded in 2002 at a church-turned-underground art space in Minneapolis. One of his most memorable compositions, "After Milo," later turned up as an untitled improvisation on his CD for the Chairkickers label. Jumping ahead six years (and several more banjo alterations later) to side two, the glittering "Orans" gets a workout at a memorial show for the artist Matt Zaun. As an acknowledgment of the occasion, Metzger also gives a one-time-only performance -- "Dark Green Water" -- on another of his mutant instruments: an acoustic guitar with the body drilled out to accommodate a cymbal set into its face, and ten assorted strings of varying lengths laid over the top, giving it a particularly metallic and dissonant sound. Limited edition of 425 copies, with an original vintage snapshot mounted on each cover.
Gedanken Splitter
(Roaratorio - ROAR14) LP $12.00
Paul Metzger’s modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although Gedanken Splitter is informed by more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as 2007’s Deliverance on Locust Music, this is more jagged and aggressive; Metzger winds improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and moves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. Mesmerizing and singular.