Pynchon Music: Frith & Kaiser

The pair has always been tight—and close in both age and temperament—as this two-CD set demonstrates. Kaiser and Frith alternate squiggles and wiggles and string tickles here, giving lots of attention to the details of improvised abstractions. They also sink their picks into an assembly of song structures that sometimes verges on the absurdly bouncy and beat-driven, even when at the core of their sound the pair could spin into the ether with ringing, caustic finality. Frith loves to tinker with the actual guitar, altering the machine’s ability to project the expected sounds. Kaiser, by contrast, seems perfectly seated when controlling the projections and mangling, tangling, and laying them in disconnected lines. If you’re in need of two generously packed reams of guitar genius, Kaiser and Frith offer one of free music’s best opportunities, and this is pinnacle work for both.

In 1979, guitarists Fred Frith and Henry Kaiser made an album titled With Friends Like These… on the Metalanguage label. It was one of the defining documents of the downtown avant-garde scene, a collection of improvised duets on which both players essentially redefined the sound of the guitar, Frith with his physically altered (and sometimes beaten) instruments, and Kaiser with his virtuosic and harmonically adventurous technique. Four years later they reunited to make Who Needs Enemies?, again on Metalanguage, and on this second album they expanded their arsenal to include the Linn drum and sequencer… In short, this set [Friends & Enemies] offers everything Frith and Kaiser have recorded together, and at mid-price. Absolutely a must for noise fans, skronk hounds, and adventurous guitarheads.

Friends & Enemies
Complete Recordings (1979-1999)
Fred Frith & Henry Kaiser
Metalanguage, 1999