Paradise of Bachelors is pleased to present Chris Forsyth’s Solar Motel, an immersive four-part suite that reimagines and reanimates the collected history of guitar-driven rock, lighting out for fresh territory in the process. The arrestingly evocative album navigates new vibe channels among the classic guitar/groove thickets of Television, the Dead, Sonic Youth, the Doors, Eno/Cale combos, et al., featuring important contributions from a crack studio band (Mike Pride on drums, Peter Kerlin on bass, and Shawn Edward Hansen on keys/synths) and co-producer Jeff Zeigler (Kurt Vile, etc.) Solar Motel—named for a derelict and now vanished New Jersey lodge—completes Forsyth’s alchemical transformation from a guitarist renowned for his nuanced playing in varied experimental and post-American Primitive circles into a full-fledged deconstructivist rock and roll bandleader producing unabashedly ambitious, ecstatic body music.
Review
The album is some kind of masterpiece, a four-part suite of ecstatic,
spiritual psychedelia that splits the difference between unabashed classic rock
thrills and a spikey avant garde sense of adventure. Try to imagine Television
circa 1977 recording a cover of Pharoah Sanders’ “The Creator Has A Master
Plan” and you’re halfway there. It’s an ambitious approach that not many
players could pull off, but Forsyth does it with the ease and dynamism of a
virtuoso. His tones shimmer and shatter, resonating beautifully from moment to
moment. As great a guitarist as he is, however, Forsyth’s real strength might
lie in the architectural nature of his songwriting, as he and his band patiently
build up majestic sound structures, only to gleefully demolish them in bursts of
cacophony. And then they do it all over again.
Tyler Wilcox – Aquarium Drunkard