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- Skeleton at the Feast (1991)
- Gods and Monsters (1992)
Skeleton at the Feast (1991)
10
Strong Seed / Guerillas in the Midst / Robert's Johnson / Hard Werken Fuck Over Man/The Reckoning / Hugh's Graveyard Stomp / Hitchcocked, Including Vertigo and Psycho / Tompkins Square Dance / Christmas in Space Medley: Bells/Drummer Boyee/Are You Experienced? / Aguirre (Lacrime Di Re)/The Sheep Look Up / Scud Patrol/Flux et Veritas / Syd's Dream / Music for The Golem: a. Main Title - Rabbi Loew Consults the Stars/The Decree, b. The Junker and the Jewess, c. Creation of the Clay Man/Astaroth, d. The Golem Walks with Famulus, Der Bose Juden-Jungling, e. The Festival of the Roses, f. In the Synagogue/The Vision of the Patriarchs, g. Go Go Golem
Skeleton
at the Feast is a stunning display of Lucas' skills as a guitarist. While
his membership of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band (Lucas played on Ice Cream
for Crow and appears briefly on Doc at the Radar Station as well)
in the early 80s is already a reason to presume the man is a guitar maverick,
this album goes further than that and establishes him as one of the most intriguing
guitarists of our time. Even though he almost quit recording after Beefheart
retired to become a painter, Lucas returned to the music world as a performer
in the late 80s. Skeleton at the Feast is his first solo album and
was recorded live in various locations in New York and Holland in 1989 (the
live soundtrack for The Golem (1921), a German Expressionist film)
and 1990 (the rest). The angular playing that Beefheart's music demanded is
largely gone and it's not an album of contortionist blues either, yet it's
similarly hard to categorize. There are a few fairly traditional songs scattered
on the album, though. "Robert's Johnson" (no typo) is a lively, energetic
piece of folk-blues, somewhat reminiscent of the late Rainer Ptacek's equally
spectacular steel playing, which is also featured on "Hugh's Graveyard Stomp"
(about a friend who took the movie Dead Poets Society serious, jumped
off the roof of a church and injured himself severely). More influenced by
jazz and folk is "Tompkins Square Dance," which has some lightnin' fast sections
that will discourage anyone who recently picked up a guitar.
More than those short pieces, however, it's the longer, harder-to-classify pieces that turn this album into the masterpiece that it is. Using not only acoustic and electric guitars, but a whole array of pedals, tricks and effects, Lucas creates layered instrumental guitar music that incorporates influences from folk, blues, country, classical, movie scores, avant-garde and psychedelic music. Like Ptacek (but more extensively), Lucas uses loops to create a layer, on top of which he can add another one and another one, which allows him to play with himself, muster enough dramatic force for it to serve as a fully-fledged soundtrack. It could have turned into a masturbatory performance, yet Lucas has understood the power of restraint - the incendiary "Hard Werken Fucked Over Man" with its merciless shredding, howling solos and wailing feedback is basically the only "rock" song here. Bores say everything and so Lucas often prefers laying down a minimalist vibe or drone on which he lays shifting, spiralling and teasing riffs, licks and hazy melodies. The result almost sounds like an eternal flood of ideas that progresses with the calmness of new age, but actually has substance added. The result is entirely idiosyncratic, yet recalls the work of Sonny Sharrock, another guitar virtuoso who used similar techniques, layering and effects like delay on his 1986 album Guitar. In one and the same song, Lucas sometimes switches from flashy folksy finger-picking to repetitive dream-like sequences to neo-classical runs and dissonant sound manipulation ("Scud Patrol") that lends the music the disorienting character of a psychedelic trip. Despite the different locations and styles, the 70+ minute album flows extremely well - from Hitchcock/Herrmann to Hendrix to the otherworldly drone of "Aguirre" - and functions best if you take it in as a whole. The last half hour of the album is taken up by the music for The Golem, which Lucas wrote and performed with the aid of keyboards player Walter Horn. Like the music that preceded it, the soundtrack is an imposing mix of styles, from dark synth drones to playful picking and heavy sheets of guitar feedback quoting Wagner's pompous "Ride of the Valkyries." It may sound like a hodgepodge on paper (or on a screen), but the key to this album's success is the flow that runs through it. Even during its inaccessible moments (most of which appear during the soundtrack), Skeleton at the Feast retains a pure, melodic invention and creativity that ensures it is, more than anything else, an album that's beautiful. Playful, moving, intriguing and endlessly ingenious, Lucas' debut album comes damn close to something I'd call perfection.
Gods and Monsters (1992)
8
Glo-Worm / Skin the Rabbit / Poison Tree / Jack Johnson/Ghostrider / Whip Named Lash / Fool's Cap / Astronomy Dominé / The Brain from Planet Eros / Dream of a Russian Princess / The Crazy Ray / King Strong
Just
like John Zorn's album Naked City was the product of a band with the
same name stepping to the foreground after its release, Gods and Monsters
was named after an ever-continuing project Lucas formed in the late-80s (the
name being a quote from classic horror movieThe Bride of Frankenstein).
Like Bill Laswell's Material and Anton Fier's Golden Palominos, Gods and Monsters'
constantly shifting line-up (the most recent one features Lucas, ex-Modern
Lovers bassist Ernie Brooks and Television-drummer Billy Ficca) featuring
musicians with often extremely divergent backgrounds is a guarantee for an
eclectic cocktail. While the most popular members of the band's early incarnation
are probably the then-unknown Jeff Buckley and power-popper Matthew Sweet,
this album features a whole bunch of musicians, the most well-known (it's
all relative) being Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu) & Jon Langford (Mekons) - with
whom Lucas would form The Killer Shrews -, as well as Rolo McGinty (The Woodentops)
and singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara. Enough namedropping already. Even
though Lucas' amazing skills (if you thought Slash was as good as it gets,
you're in for quite an experience) remain the focal point of the album, its
vastly different from Skeleton at the Feast. Whereas that album firmly
placed itself in an avant-garde tradition with a focus on sounds, experiments
and a dizzying array of effects to enhance a psychedelic soundtrack to an
insane acid trip, Gods and Monsters is an effort to take Lucas' eclecticism
into a more song-oriented rock-format. Those who prefer their albums edgy
and obscure may be offended by its accessibility (and it is damn catchy at
times), but this needn't imply the albums isn't less interesting.
The most conventional material is to be found at the beginning, as "Glo-Worm" (with McGinty) is a jittery folk-pop song and "Poison Tree" (with O'Hara) understated folksy drama, but what to make of "Skin the Rabbit," which situates itself between hammering folk and ecstatic flamenco cadence complete with handclaps? As on Skeleton, the diversity of Lucas' playing is immense, as he shifts from contemplative folk that recalls John Fahey and Leo Kottke ("Fool's Cap," "Dream of a Russian Princess"), to greasy wah wah-effects and distortion work-outs like his interpretation of Miles Davis' "Jack Johnson" coupled to Suicide's "Ghost Machine," which actually sounds as if it's a tribute to Hendrix or Alvin Lee. Elsewhere, he lays down drugged and pounding psychedelia (a droning "Astronomy Dominé"), trance-like post-punk (the living room recording of "The Brain from Planes Eros") or the baffling jazz-metal-noise monster that closes the album by expanding on Skeleton's "Guerillas in the Midst" and taking it into territory that's a Walhalla for guitar nuts. Metallic shredding, jazzy noodling and abstract noise rarely come together as successfully as this. The album's eclecticism might be a bit puzzling and the funk-styled rap-rock of "The Crazy Ray" wasn't a very good idea (it's really the only track that sounds a bit limp nowadays), but on most other tracks, Lucas goes much further than most versatile rock guitarists even dare to imagine. Quirky and diverse, Gods and Monsters may be the ideal place to delve into Lucas' output. (Feb. 25th, 2006)
Interesting note: the quite famous photo used for the cover (made by Anton Corbijn) is actually an inverted version of Lucas' reflection in a puddle.
Read album reviews of similar or related artists: Billy Jenkins - John Zorn - Bill Frisell - Sonny Sharrock