Probably my favourite artist right now, John Frusciante (though it’s a close run thing with Nick Cave), has just announced that he’s releasing a new album in January 2009.
You may have heard of him as the guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but much as I love his work with the band I think his solo stuff is just something else. From simple noisy rock, to beautiful soul stirring acoustic albums via 80′s style electronica, his ability to produce gorgeous music across a range of genre is unmatched in my experience – check out his back catalogue & I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
His new album is titled The Empyrean and in his own words it:
..is a concept record that tells a single story both musically and lyrically. The story takes place within one person, and there are two characters. It contains a version of Tim Buckley’s, ‘Song To The Siren’ and the rest of the songs are written by me. My friend Josh plays on it, as does Flea. It also features Sonus Quartet, Johnny Marr and The New Dimension Singers. I’m really happy with it and I’ve listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides. It should be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night.
With anyone else that would sound unbearably pretentious, but from John it’s just simple honesty & the line up of talent is also promising – Josh Klinghoffer is a criminally underrated musician, and again you’d do well to track down anything he’s played on.
I’m too old & too cynical to be a gushing fanboy, so you’ll have to believe me that if you can’t abide the dross that is mainstream music, and want to just try something genuine and fresh then John is the man to head for.
(By the way Johnfrusciante.com has been re-launched as a WordPress blog written by John, so it will be cool to read what he has to say in the coming months.)
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I didn’t know John was recording his own stuff. Stands to reason though. His guitar is what I love best about the Chilis so I think I’ll give this a try when it’s released. Thanks for alerting us to it.
Track down all of his solo stuff Angus, you won’t regret it.