Search - Mick Barr :: Mick Barr: Octis - Iohargh Wended

Not quite something I can digest.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 05/02/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Having heard guitarist Mick Barr playing alongside John Zorn and Bill Laswell New Year's Eve 2006 at the lamentably closed Tonic, I was a bit curious about who this guitarist was who was playing such fierce lines with that band. Several weeks later, conveniently enough, Barr's record of solo guitar (or guitar with drum machine), "Octis: Iohargh Wended" was released. I decided to pick it up, played it quite a bit for about a week and a half and haven't listened to it again before today. Listening to it with critical ears, I'm understanding why it hasn't gotten much time played.



Mick Barr, if you're unfamiliar, is the sort of guitarist who makes death metal guitar look like happy balladry (at least on this record, though I've heard that it's like this elsewhere too). "Iohargh Wended" is divided into two suites that consist of essentially the same idea-- frantic, explosive, aggressive, guitar line runs. Repetitive and with high tempos. Surely, not the stuff for the light hearted. And at a minimum, it's completely relentless. On first listen, one is immediately impressed with Barr's technique-- he's blazingly fast and remarkably consistent, and while nearly an hour of this sort of stuff can at times feel like being beaten over the head repeatedly, it is admirable. A drum machine tends to be accompaniment, matching the 32nd note runs on the guitar pretty much beat-for-beat. When it's not there, it's not missed (in fact, it occasionally gives Barr the chance to open up, as on "Iohargh: RDD-4", where some non-32nd note runs sneak in).



As intriguing as this is, there's three criticisms I make of it. First, it's a bit long. The record is broken into two suites, and while both have their strengths, with the pretty much consistent style and performance aesthetic, it's kind of like listening to 20 seconds of guitar with the tape sped up in an infinite loop. Second, the production values are occasionally a bit shaky. This is somewhat more evident on the first suite, where some odd fadeouts ("RR-2"), but throughout, transitions between tracks have that sound like listening to music on an MP3 player-- that little one second pause that gets inserted in between songs can make medleys and live recordings annoying to listen to. Check the transition between "Iohargh: RDD-5" and "Iohargh: RDD-6" for a good example of this. The third criticism, and one that I make only after careful consideration, is the one that I think really explains my issue with this record to me. This may be a genre problem for me, but I'm left feeling nothing from this. Extended works, instrumental self-indulgence, and extreme instrumental playing are all up my alley at times, and as someone with a borderline unhealthy love of Brian Eno, I don't necessarily need my music to hit my over the head with what it's trying to say, but 20 minutes into this, it starts to feel like an exercise in self-indulgence. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that, but 20 minutes you get that feeling, it's still going strong.



Bottom line, this one's not for me. Barr's got some chops, that's for sure, and certainly this is interesting in its relentlessness and virtuosity, but it's not something I can get into."