Boston.com
24th December 2004, boston.com,
thanks to Anita
Not content to show off his singer/songwriter chops with a single solo album, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist John Frusciante has embarked on an epic, six-album song cycle, to be released over six months. The series shows that he’s as comfortable with indie rock and electronic music as with the guitar-laced alternative rock one might expect from him. There’s the classic rock-flavored “Will to Death” album and the diffuse, electro-based “Automatic Writing” EP, which Frusciante released as the band Ataxia. And there’s the understated indie rock of the “DC” EP, produced by Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye, and the alternative rock swagger of “Inside of Emptiness.” Frusciante’s fifth release, “A Sphere in the Heart of Silence,” differs the most from the others in the series, offering experimental electro music that was largely written with multi-instrumentalist collaborator Josh Klinghoffer (PJ Harvey, Beck) for a 10-show performance series. The duo builds a dense soundscape of woven electronic melodies, as on album opener “Sphere,” which finds the simple beat and mournful electric guitar kicking in only after minute four. “The Afterglow” is closer to traditional dance music, with a manic beat and sinuous, Middle Eastern-tinged vocals, while “Communique” and “My Life” are gentler, piano-dusted ballads. Athough less immediately accessible than the other releases in the series, this EP helps to reveal the depth and range that is possible when musicians with curiosity and courage allow their creative powers to run free.
Sarah Tomlison
