Discovering musicians like Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya is an unutterable bliss. I remember the excitement of hearing Kadri Gopalnath for the first time, saxophones in Indian classical music! Truly a unique and remarkable musical feat. Lap slide guitarist Debashish Bhattacharya is even more satisfying (if that’s even possible), because slide guitar tops the greatest instruments list for me as well. And hearing Indian classical music played with slide guitar: the soundtrack to Hindu heaven, if there ever were one.

Born in 1963, Debashish is a prodigious figure who started studying with Indian slide-guitar pioneer Brij Bhushan Kabra at the age of 9. He was given the President of India award in 1984 at the age of 21. He’s well respected in the world music community and he’s shared stage with virtuosos like Derek Trucks and Bob Brozman among others. He has invented his own slide-guitars for god’s sake!

He went on to work developing the Hawaiian slide guitar into a more Indian instrument, adding chikaris and sympathetic strings, and eventually coming out with a 24-string instrument based on the old Hawaiian six-string. This is universally regarded as the highest form of the slide guitar’s development anywhere, making Bhattacharya one of the masters of the instrument, especially when considering his amazing abilities in playing Indian forms on it. Allmusic

These songs come from his Calcutta Chronicles album which was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award in the category of Best Traditional World Music Album. Truly stellar musicianship on this one don’t sleep on this if you have the remotest interest in Indian music.

A few Jack Rose related articles, events, music on Valentine’s Day:

This Valentine’s Day evening, a handful of our world’s most soulful guitarists will gather at ISSUE Project Room to pay loving tribute to the great Jack Rose, who passed away in December at the much too young age of 38. The lineup, comprised of those friends whom he inspired and who inspired him, includes the Black Twig Pickers (the group featured on Jack’s most recent album), Pelt (with whom Jack played on and off again from ’95 until his death), Steve Gunn, Tom Carter, Marcia Bassett, Michael Chapman, and Glenn Jones. FMA

Philadelphia Citypaper

“Jack was the kinda guy that seemed to be part ox, and that it would take more than a little heart attack to take him out,” says Anthony Vogdes, owner of Girard Avenue’s Tequila Sunrise record shop and label. “As an American musician, he was steeped in the DIY ethos of making his music, getting it released, getting out on the road and, whenever possible, getting paid.”

Philadelphia Inquirer

“It’s not just his technical ability,” said Bettina Richards, founder of Thrill Jockey Records, the Chicago label that will release Rose’s posthumous record, Luck in the Valley, on Feb. 23. “His personality is infused into the music. It’s so distinct, so individual,” she said.

Frankly I downloaded Barn Owl’s latest LP, because I thought I was downloading Bone Awl. Now there are some similarities between the two outfits; both are noisy and ominous. But the obvious lack of black metal, and the fact that there are a few earthy drones on San Francisco collective’s first full length ‘From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light’ made me realize that I had failed. And thank serendipity for that, otherwise this little gem from 2008 might have been lost amidst the tides of new stuff washing upon our shores.

If you’re familiar with labels like Not Not Fun, Root Strata or Foxglove you already know what to expect from Barn Owl: lots of fuzzy guitar processing, ritualistic slow doom, psychedelic folk and mournful drones shifting and evolving into complex soundscapes. The downside with ‘experimental’ releases like this one is that, most are not ready for prime-time because the experimentations never blossom. Fortunately Barn Owl’s Not Not Fun story is different and is an instant fav. Drummer Mike Bailey also plays his part in baking a cathartic sludgy edge on some pieces, which adds to the overall diversity. Well prepared and well done, Barn Owl’s ‘From Our Mouths A Perpetual Light’ is a keeper, they will be touring Europe in April, so take notice.

Tranced-out psych studies are the order of the day, and wielding an arsenal of guitars, harmonium, harmonica, rhodes and synthesizer, this quartet (well, there are four of them this time around – apparently they have a floating, variable roster of chums to call upon) tap into some creepy pagan atmospheres, and ceremonial drones on a slab of vinyl that’s as white as their death cult robes. Boomkat

I know I haven’t done justice to the photo so here’s the full size.

“Two studies for electric guitar, sine generator and ring modulator.
Personal revelation through deconstruction.
Footsteps on marble.
Fever reverie.
Coming to in the snow.”

Joe Houpert’s minimalist studies for guitar are two delicate snowflakes rich in texture. Check it out if you’re as touched by Alvin Curran’s “Songs and Views of the Magnetic Garden” as I am. Headphones recommended. Free download on the Pandafuzz netlabel

Pitchfork and others report that the enigmatic guitarist Jack Rose has passed away after a heart attack aged 38. Can’t say anything meaningful that might take away the pain from my stomach on this godawful sunday. He was on the top tier of my artists both musically and as the impact their death would cause, and death hits the bullseye once again

38 year old Rose was the top guitarist on the bill for every serious music listener. He was the standardbearer of John Fahey and Robbie Basho’s legacy, which taps into an almost esoteric level of wisdom. His music was a safe haven in the commodity obsessed, spectacle society that we live in. I’m extremely sad to see a humble and warm heart pass away this early in life, really gutted to lose someone whom I call a friend just through his music although we have never met. R.I.P, the world is never going to be the same without you Jack Rose!.

Image by James H. Cadden

Remake of a traditional Hungarian folk piece by the prolific guitarist and composer Steven R. Smith better known with his work as the Eastern European experimental folk output Hala Strana or his solo guitar soundscapes as Ulaan Khol among others. Maximum dose of melancholia for harsh winter nights. Check the video for the original song. Off his instrumental covers EP The Death of the Last Years Man on Emperor Jones, where he offered “Celestial versions of songs by The Smiths, Leonard Cohen, Muzsikas and Tim Hardin”.

Smith borrows some elements of instrumentation from the folk genre, yet creates genuinely unique songs with it. As Piazzolla reinvented the tango, Hala Strana drives at fusing Smith’s instrumental soundscapes with an ethnic turn. At times this direction is only hinted at, as the album does not stoop to essentialist claims about folk. Dusted Reviews

PS : Not to do injustice to his musical versatility and present him as a folk song rehasher, here’s another song that better displays his creative output. From 2001’s Tableland album also on Emperor Jones.

TLOBF reports :

All Tomorrow’s Parties announced Mr. Matt Groening, that guy behind the Simpsons and Futurama, as a curator for ATP UK Weekend 1 at Butlins, Minehead on May 7th – 9th 2010, some time back, but had yet to confirm which acts he’d chosen to play. Well, the wait is over as he’s picked the first acts for his weekend:

BOREDOMS performing Boadrum – 9 Drummer Show
The Raincoats
Toumani Diabate
Danielson (formerly Danielson Family)
James Blackshaw
Anni Rossi
Viv Albertine’s Limerence (formerly of The Slits)

No wonder Simpsons and Futurama are the best cartoons ever created the guy has a rock solid & diverse musical taste, James Blackshaw and Toumani Diabate on the same lineup, WIN! Big ups to Matt Groening!. Also on Guardian.

On his latest output The Freak of Araby, former Sun City Girls guitar hero Sir Richard Bishop pays homage to the Middle East.

What exactly is Richard Bishop? A dealer in the exotic? A dabbler in esoteric mysticism? A “traveling salesman”? The Freak of Araby doesn’t make Bishop’s worldview any simpler for us, but it does clarify it some. He is, first and foremost, a traveler, picking up inspiration as he roams, but he is also a worshiper at the altar of the guitar, occasionally himself transforming into a guitar hero/idol. Dusted

Now, since we live in Istanbul, everyday we see expats & tourists from around the world exoticised and charmed out of their minds by the Orient / the Levant, buying ‘kilim’s in their house and doing things the Middle Eastern way as if there were a secret code. This kind of exoticism is not a problem for the shopkeeper, but it might get on your nerves during the daily bump and grind. Thank God Richard Bishop is Half-Lebanese so that spares him from the ‘orientalist’ criticism.

“My grandfather first exposed me to this type of music when I was a younger lad, especially Farid Al-Atrche, Oum Khoulthoum, Fairuz, and others. This record, I hope, will make this type of music even more popular and will give people like Omar Khorshid and Mike Hegazi (another unknown guitar player from Lebanon who did a version of Kaddak el Mayass) the credit they deserve. FACT

My trouble with The Freak of Araby is that it’s not near the standard we’ve come to expect from SRB’s previous output. Sure it’s OK to listen to because hey, everybody loves Middle Eastern music and surf guitar. But just look at Ka’an Azzaman or Solenzara, they’re just ghosts of the Khorshid version. Without even the trills!. This would have been an incredible journey if more songs had extended experimental parts like Sidi Mansour, but right now I’m troubled to say it sounds like an okay remake. 3/5

I’ve tweeted about the loss of Celer’s Dani “Chubbs” Baquet-Long on Monday, but I couldn’t find some time to make a proper post because of the our vacation. This Southern California couple were very talented blissful drone/soundscape makers and all around artists into literature, poetry and philosophy etc. and they were quite prolific with a lot of releases on and/OAR, Infraction, Digitalis and their own label Celer. I’ve only begun collecting their work but 2008’s Capri is an amazing soundtrack (made after a journey in Italy’s Capri Island) that I started our Aegian vacation with. It was a strange case of synchronicity and broken heart to see her go at the ripe age of 26. Our love and condolences to her husband Will and hope everything turns out fine for him. R.I.P

The Young 12 string guitar master James Blackshaw takes on piano in another enchanting album of five songs spanning 50 minutes. The piano pieces are cool, yet we still prefer him fingerpicking his guitar.

“The balance of gravity and playfulness in Blackshaw’s labyrinthine music owes a debt to Borges, which he paid by naming his compilation of experimental music for solo stringed instruments Garden of Forking Paths. Channeling lush, idiosyncratic classical guitar (think Fahey, Basho, Kottke) with the hypnotic rigor of ambient and post-minimal aesthetics, he gins up deep rumbles on the lower strings, glimmering melodies on the higher ones, evoking again a pair of metaphysical gates through which mysteries pass.” Fanzine