FIFTY

FRED FRITH's debut solo release "Guitar Solos" was monumental in showcasing the bizarre avant-garde world of experimental free improvisation guitar and has remained an underground classic since its initial release in 1974. In order to give it a proper release in time for its 50th birthday, FRITH gave the entire original release a complete remastering but he didn't stop there. The album needed something special to celebrate its unique status in FRITH's vast discography and so he went all out and recorded a completely new companion album that replicates "Guitar Solos" in its technique and production process.

The result is the album FIFTY which is available as the companion album in a double album with the newly remastered "Guitar Solos" under the title GUITAR SOLOS / FIFTY and even though it doesn't appear to be available for purchase on its own currently, can for all intents and purposes be considered a separate album in its own right as all artists realize that having as many avenues for purchase makes the most sense however purchasing the newly remastered "Guitar Solos" isn't a bad way to go either. This modern representation of the classic album features 12 entirely newly recorded tracks and the second CD features a playing time of just under 36 minutes.

This album is a faithful revisiting of the original album's recording process in a manner that is as close as possible to everything that went into the "Guitar Solos" album even to the point that FRITH utilized the very same 1936 Gibson K-11 with an extra pickup over the strings. All the details were replicated including the positioning of the microphones on the guitar, FRITH's seating and all the attributes of the original studio. Although FRITH realized that the recording process had evolved manyfold in the last fifty years, for the sake of celebrating the uniqueness of his debut album he kept things exactly as they would've been in the 1974 recording process from 1974. The result is basically a faithful time capsule that sounds like a collection of leftover tracks from the original recording sessions.

The idea is quite novel and also celebrates FRITH's relentless pursuit of creativity in music from every possible angle not covered by the mainstream. FIFTY definitely succeeds in replicating the long lost techniques FRITH used on his "Guitar Solos" album however while that album was innovative at the time (despite being compared to Derek Bailey's similarly styled album "Solo Guitar" from 1971), unfortunately FIFTY doesn't sound quite as unique in 2024 since during the ensuring decades untold scores of artists have taken up drone and free improv as their sole methodology of musical expression and add to that the compositions themselves just seem substandard to the ones of the past. Sure FRITH did give it his best and these free improv guitar pieces are interesting and still evokes the sense of wonder of how some of these sounds were teased out of a single guitar but it doesn't really add much to the original album's mystery.

Overall a decent album and kudos for the creative idea that goes above and beyond a mere remastering ceremony to celebrate an album's half century mark. If you think of these as bonus tracks to the "Guitar Solos" original then it's all good but once you start comparing this to the original as an album in its own right then i'm afraid it doesn't quite measure up to the it. After all there's only so much of this the average person can stomach and while the original seemed to muster up a vast diverse array of unknown guitar techniques, this one sort of just regurgitates them. All in all a nice testament to one of the avant-garde musical world's most creative and long lasting talents and a great companion piece to one of the monumental experimental albums of the 20th century.