Maya

レッド・ホット・チリ・ペッパーズへカムバックを果たした天才ギタリスト=ジョン・フルシアンテ。愛猫MAYAに捧ぐ、初の本人名義ソロは90SのUKブレイクビーツ/ジャングル全開なサウンド!

ジョン・フルシアンテがブレイクコアを代表するアーティストであるアーロン・ファンクのレーベルTimesigから自身の名前で初のインストゥルメンタル・エレクトロニック・アルバムをリリース!!
本作は、最近亡くなった彼の愛猫MAYAに捧げられたもので、MAYAは彼の孤独な音楽制作セッションの旅の仲間だったそうです。本作はジョンが好む、91年から96年ぐらいのUKブレイクビーツ/ハードコア/ジャングルにインスパイアされたサウンドで、彼の持ち味である鋭いメロディセンスと洗練されたプロダクション、マシンとサンプルの絶妙なバランスでの融合が実現。陽気なエネルギーとインスピレーションに溢れ、変化に富みつつもパーソナルな作品に仕上がっています。

「以前のように歌ったり歌詞を書いたりすることには興味がないんだ。今は一人になって、2020年リリースされた作品のような音楽を作るのが自然な流れになっている。機械やコンピューターとの行き来が本当に好きなんだ。」

John Frusciante has long acknowledged techno and rave culture as a major interest and a significant influence on his singular, sometimes confounding solo career, but it wasnt until the 2010s that the off-again, on-again Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist began releasing purely instrumental electronic music. Following a one-off 2010 collaboration with Venetian Snares as part of the trio Speed Dealer Moms, Frusciante began releasing acid techno as Trickfinger in 2015, while 2016s Foregrow EP, issued under his own name, incorporated sparing amounts of guitars and vocals into his adventurous arrangements of skittering beats and kinetic synth melodies. Maya is Frusciantes second album released in 2020, following a Trickfinger set titled She Smiles Because She Presses the Button. Titled after his feline companion of 15 years who had passed away, Maya is credited to Frusciantes given name, which is fitting as it has more personality than much of his Trickfinger work, even if the album lacks his knotty guitar playing or falsetto vocals. The tracks all center around heavily chopped-up breakbeats, equally inspired by early 90s U.K. hardcore as well as the trailblazing drillnbass experiments of producers like Squarepusher and Luke Vibert. Emotionally, the tracks contain a powerful mixture of club ecstasy and wistful longing, coming close to the moods of mid-90s darkside jungle, but pushing the beats a bit further. Midtempo opener Brand E has a steady, club-friendly rhythm along with simmering acid squiggles, but most of the album is harder, more complex, and more frenetic. Tracks like Usbrup Pensul are filled with clattering, stuttering drums and rave stabs, while Blind Aim is a tough, thrilling piece of mutant ragga-jungle, shifting from levitating synths to explosive Amen breaks. Amethblowl is even deadlier and rougher, with extremely bit-crushed breakbeats detonating all over sinister sci-fi melodies. Each of the tracks took a while to prepare, as Frusciante would fine-tune synth patches and arrange breakbeats, but the actual recordings were bashed out pretty quickly, and they all maintain that sense of elaborately designed spontaneity, making it easily the artists most successful electronic work. ~ Paul Simpson