Scalping The Guru

80年代から活動を続け、すでに100枚以上のアルバムをリリースしているROBERT POLLARD率いるインディーロック・レジェンドGUIDED BY VOICES。1993年から1994年にかけてDOMINO、CITY SLANG、SILTBREEZE、ENGINE RECORDSからリリースされたEP 4作品をコンパイルしたアルバム『SCALPING THE GURU』をCD / LPリリース!

アルバム『VAMPIRE ON TITUS』や『BEE THOUSAND』と同時期にリリースされたEP作品で、"MY IMPRESSION NOW"、"MATTER EATER LAD"、"BIG SCHOOL "などの名曲を収録。一つのアルバム作品としても申し分のない纏まりのあるコンピレーション・アルバムとなっています!

In the mid-90s, Ohio band Guided by Voices were hitting their stride with the four-track cassette recorder, or as bandleader Robert Pollard affectionately referred to it, "the instant gratification machine." Pollards classic rock-informed and melody-heavy songwriting met with an impatient, sometimes improvisatory recording process that resulted in brief, scrappy lo-fi pop gems. GbV output from this time like 1994s Bee Thousand is some of the strongest indie rock of its era as well as being emblematic of the lo-fi movement the band was at the forefront of, but their full albums were surrounded by nonstop lesser releases. Scalping the Guru draws from material originally released as four separate 7" EPs between 1993 and 1994, offering a peek into lesser-known songs from a creative high point that gave us some of the bands best-loved work. Meticulously stitched together from a scattered supply of demo-quality recordings, sequencing and flow were key to albums like Alien Lanes and Bee Thousand, and Scalping the Guru follows a similarly intentional architecture rather than just reissuing the tracks in the order they ran on their original formats. Because of this, ragers like "Glow Boy Butlers" fade into low-key acoustic, Beatles-y sketches like "Hey Aardvark," and its never too long before one of Pollards miniature masterpieces like "My Impression Now" shows up. The variance of styles goes even more extreme places than on their proper albums, plowing through the 32-second post-punk blast "Rubber Man" to get to hamfisted power pop anthem "Big School," and venturing into other psychedelic experiments and trashy rockers from there. The compilation clips along quickly, promising to change gears radically within a matter of minutes and always presenting a new idea to wash away the one that just passed. GbVs unfathomably prolific nature, especially in this phase, resulted in so much material that only 20 of the 28 tunes from the 7"s are included on Scalping the Guru, and incredible songs like "Dusted" and "Kisses to the Crying Cooks" from the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP dont make the final cut. Despite these omissions, the compilation does a good job of weeding out the filler, and exists as an annex of even more fleetingly amazing songwriting from GbVs defining era. ~ Fred Thomas