I spent most of the morning flipping between one disc and the next, restless for something that actually fit my mood. It's Monday, I'm particularly tired, I don't want to, you know, as they say, deal and nothing particularly appealed to me. On days like this, I tend to gather up a pretty disparate grouping of artists to accompany me to work because, well, I just never quite know what I'm going to be in the mood for. Today I've got noisy accompaniment from one end of the spectrum - Meshuggah, Isis, Melvins, Dillinger Escape Plan - and I stretch all the way to the other end of that spectrum - Dave Douglas, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Bill Frisell, Charlie Hunter. In between you'll find some Rollins Band, Pixies, Talking Heads, Husker Du, Bjork, and Jeff Buckley. Salvation, I found, lie more toward one end than the other in the form of Viktor Krauss' Far From Enough.
Far From Enough, essentially, is the best Bill Frisell album he himself didn't release. Oh, sure, he plays on it, and it's almost certianly created with his remarkable sound in mind, but it's still led by bassist Krauss, who, it just so happens, backs up Frisell on his releases from time to time, and, oh by the way, the album also happens to have Jerry Douglas, playing too many stringed-guitar-type instruments to list, who has also appeared on some of Frisell's work. It may be Krauss' baby, but Frisell takes center stage here, as each tune is clearly derived from Frisell's mid-90s post-bluegrass Americana, and in fact is the best thing featuring Frisell in a few years. It's that yearning quality in Frisell's guitar that sweeps me away today, a sound he pioneered and that everyone seems to want to emulate - but can't. Here's the real deal, in a quality that's been a little lacking on his last few albums. (Let's hope Frisell's new album, Unspeakable (a collaboration with Hal Willner - should be interesting!) out 8/24, rectifies this.)
(Rectify yourself and check out the beautiful lull.)
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