Spike

Agata – Spike (Tzadik)
Solo record from the guitarist of Melt Banana. Noisy, cartoon-like, insanity surprisingly all made on guitar. Drones, ambience, scraping and video game noises all thrown together. 25 tracks, most under a minute long. He gets his guitar to make more sounds than I think any other guitarist I have ever heard. He is able to use his collection of effects pedals quickly to change sounds completely even in tracks that are under 20 seconds long. The tracks where the guitar is more discernable have an improvised feel to them. While this doesn’t sound like Melt Banana at all you will recognize his tone instantly. This is extremely dynamic going from ambient beautiful guitar sounds to chaos noise in a split second.
2. Quiet static drone to begin. He somehow gets a trippy keyboard sounds out of his guitar.
**6. Calling “Pinger” and sure enough it sounds like the “pinging” noises of early video games. He tosses in a few harsh chords for fun. It IS a battle between monster and laser.
7. Very dynamic. The beginning reminded me of Melt Banana but then he quickly quiets down and messes with the pitch of the notes.
8. Big, lush, pretty sounds with heavy use of echo. The beauty of a jet taking off.
**9. More aggressive like his playing in Melt Banana. Squeals and bursts with that unique sound he gets.
**11-12. Imagine if you took the guitar parts from a Melt Banana track and improvised it. Very dynamic. This sounds like a guitar some of the time. These two tracks sure seem like they go together.
**13. Noisy but the guitar is making sounds that sound like improvised vocals. Track ends with ambient noise.
14. Pretty chiming sounds that sound like a wind chime.
15. Ha…the title is “The Cable Has No Name” and sure enough, it sounds like he is playing with his guitar cable that has a loose connection.
**16. Amazing switching between effects and normal guitar sounds. The middle half sounding like it’s submerged in water.
**17. Derek Bailey on crack with effects pedals.
18. The first track over 2.5 minutes long. Like the noise you made as a kid of a shifting car in a drone form (He must loop his initial playing) with some of the usual dynamic noise making over the top.
21. Noisier.
22. More video game sounds.
23. He’s attacking another monster with his guitar. Will he win?
24. One of the darker tracks. Feels like things are flying by and you might be in danger of being hit by one of them.
**25. A 10 minute track, which means it’s damn near as long as the previous 24 tracks. You get it all in this track.
Great stuff. -mph