Ignatz – Can I Go Home Now? (Fonal)
Primitive folk-blues, achingly dark and lo-fi, slurred solipsism with crystalline cassette hiss. Belgian guitarist Bram Devens took his nom-de-plume from the Krazy Kat cartoon, though his acoustic improvisations are as bleak as the Boondocks and as humorless as Zippy. Lovely, plaintive, poignant and personal like the best of Skip James, M. John Hurt, and even Daniel Johnston. FCC clean

1. (3:55) lonely rolling bluesy groove, vibrant riffing on the lower strings, if Fahey drank five cups of coffee and jammed with Tinariwen it might sound like this
2. (2:51)* pretty fingerpicking, heartwrenching crooning, hard to believe this isn’t a John Hurt cover (maybe it is?)
3. (1:06) a short skiffle jaunt, sounds like it was recorded through a tin can, adolescent bedroom vibes
4. (3:20) fuzzy, fragmented, lots of clanging and jarring, angular guitar melodies—Tom Waits tripping balls.
5. (5:00) a teenage Bob Dylan sitting at a dock, rambling and jamming with accordion-wielding sailors
5. (3:51)** crazed noisy guitar loops, sounds like his delay pedal is set to “reverse”—meanwhile a trance-inducing, African blues influenced groove plunks its way along.
6. (3:04)* bittersweet buzzing melodies, jarring yet sweet start us off, before the rhythm guitar fades in and an awkward-off kilter ramble proceeds.
7. (2:02) Instrumental: happy plunking chords, children’s lullaby with folk troubadour aspirations.
8. (3:38) mournful, plaintive country blues-ish, dreamy, very much in his own vein
9. (4:35) dark, brooding, pounding blues with guitar solos adding a bit of a Moroccan flavor before wandering off the deep end
10. (3:23) probably the most straightforward, sad singer-songwriter-ish styled, Fahey meets Sun Kil Moon
11. (3:43)* quavering, fragile, nightmarish blues meanderings, cool pentatonic soloing and sparse warbling with a throbbing bass
12. (3:20)** psychedelic wailing guitar, clanging pounding loops, hoarse voice croaking through decades of tape hiss