For the past two decades, Chris Forsyth has quietly built one of the most distinctive catalogs in contemporary underground music, balancing technical precision with deep feel, repetition, and exploratory instinct. On two new releases — Basic’s self-titled LP with Douglas McCombs and Mikel Patrick Avery, and the sprawling improvisational debut from WHAT IS NOW — Forsyth stretches outward in different directions, moving from hypnotic groove and motorik interplay to thornier, open-ended collective improvisation that rewards patience, curiosity, and total immersion.
Category: BASIC
Basic :: Dream City
Hot on the heels of their thrilling debut, Basic is back with Dream City. The Basic formula remains in place, with percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery’s hypnotic electro-acoustic rhythms providing the sturdy foundation for Chris Forsyth to weave fantastical six-string tapestries. It’s far more than just “shredding over the top,” however — in fact, Dream City features some of Forsyth’s most lyrical and imaginative playing, forgoing flash for melody, fireworks for pure texture. This stuff has a pleasingly neverendless feel, like we’re only hearing choice snippets of an eternal jam. Basically beautiful.
BASIC :: This Is BASIC
A few years back, Chris Forsyth hipped me to Robert Quine and Fred Maher’s 1984 LP Basic, an instrumental album of guitar and drum machine rock that sounds like it’s playing at the wrong speed. His new trio with baritone guitarist Nick Millevoi (whose recent Moon Pulses sounds like the record I wish U2 would make) and Mikel Patrick Avery on percussion and electronics more than winks at Basic with their debut, This is BASIC—at times its wonky, distortion saturated riffs recall that album for sure. But these guys are on their own trip.