Transform Online

25th January 2005, Transform Online

Inside of Emptiness is perhaps the most “all over the place” of John Frusciante’s six-album-journey so far. The Will to Death and DC EP were melodic albums rooted in classic rock, Ataxia was an improv stoner jam based in mood instead of composition, but Inside of Emptiness has songs about Aleister Crowley, ‘70s guitar solos, and other lyrics of “surreal or nonsensical direction.” Don’t go imagining John Zorn just yet: as the liner notes states, the album was influenced by White Light/White Heat and Lust For Life, so there are still verses, choruses, and hooks a plenty. They’re just manipulated in more abstract methods than on other Frusciante albums. Opener “What I Saw” could very well be a Guitar Wolf production job, with dirty ass licks and levels in the red to give it that raw “peaking” sound. “Inside a Break” has a guitar solo being electronically bent out of shape, “A Firm Kick” has a solo made entirely of John “beating the fuck out of the guitar,” and “666” has “three bars of sixes which are interjected into the otherwise 4/4 feel of the song.”

If this is all going over your head, fret not: Inside of Emptiness still retains that Frusciante magic we all love, transplanting the man’s essence into emotional aural streams. Plus, according to himself, the sessions were “greatly indebted to the Rick James episode of Chappelle’s Show.” How can you not love it?

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