na: loren connors

We received a number of Loren Connors discs on the site in the past few days. Normally, I would’ve just written it off as avant-guitar sketches that I’m not that interested in. But after reading Marc Masters’ feature on him in The Wire this month, I decided to take a listen to some of these digital reissues.

Loren Connors - As Roses Bow: Collected Airs 1992-2002

This two CD tribute to Connors’ Irish heritage takes tracks from ten different previously released albums. As Masters’ writes in his piece, Connors is busy here “massaging simple tones and phrases repeatedly.” The songs are short and minimal things (not great for subscription downloading services, I know…), exploring little more than a dreamy, atmospheric space. Surprisingly, considering the circumstances, the material hangs together quite well as one piece.

Loren Connors - Moonyean

Connors’ guitar is quite a bit more expressive on Moonyean (”Moonyean 2,” for instance), although a few of the tracks from this release pop up on As Roses Bow. The album is about a fictional woman, so it’s pretty easy to impose past personal relationships on these depressing tunes.

Loren Connors - Hell’s Kitchen Park

This one is from 1993 and, in opposition to the strung-out and atmospheric tone poems of his later work, I find much of Hell’s Kitchen to be fairly precise. Many of the guitar sounds you’ll hear on the first couple of tracks like “Mother & Son” and “New Morning” are round and short. I’m wholly unknowledgeable when it comes to talking about the technical aspects of guitar tone, so I’m sure he just turned on a button on his electric to make it happen, but when taken in concert with the usual drifting and loose tendrils of melody, it makes for a nice bit of tension.

Loren Connors & Suzanne Langille - Crucible

Loren has worked quite a bit with his wife, singer Suzanne Langille: two of the best songs on Hell’s Kitchen are collaborations with her (”Child” and “Brigid’s Song”). Here, they work apart: Connors’ and Langille’s contributions are both a cappella. Definitely not my favorite of the bunch.

Loren Connors - 9th Avenue

Originally released in 1995, 9th Avenue sounds to these ears pretty much in love with more conventional guitar solos. Of course, with Connors, it’s never quite that easy: these are solos drenched in heavy reverb and extended for much longer than the usual ten or twenty seconds afforded to a regular rock band’s ax man. Here, on “In Cushman’s Row,” “Dawn On 47th” and “Stilled Wind” you can hear the desiccated remains of Keith Richards licks, stripped of both their swagger and pomp.