Comments (0) Best Avant-Garde Recording - 2001
Scream of Consciousness
Mike O'Neill
Intimate solo-guitar improvisation filtered through casually chaotic sleight of hand (you know -- the induced vertigo from digital delays, ebos and assorted effects-laden gewgaws) is too easy a description for Mike O'Neill's impressive Scream of Consciousness. Scratch deeper and you'll discover methodically disarranged classical pieces, spiffy one-liners, and explorations into looped-based environments with all the distortion of a funhouse mirror. Amusingly titled cuts such as "Cupid's Gymnasium," "Shit-canned" and "Effing the Ineffable" hint toward prog-minded excursions -- something not entirely surprising given O'Neill's alumni status in Boulder's confounding quartet. Instrument Panel. Available through saxophonist Jack Wright's home page, www.springgardenmusic.com, Scream covers all of the basic food groups and then some. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll scream.
