Bill Orcutt - A New Way To Pay Old Debts (2011)

Editions Mego continue their quest for total world dominance with this blistering re-issue of Harry Pussy string-botherer Bill Orcutt’s ground shaking ‘A New Way To Pay Old Debts’. There is no doubt in my mind that this was one of the finest LPs to grace record store shelves in 2009, so a CD re-issue is more than warranted, and to bump it up with bonus material (both unreleased and from a prior 7”), well that’s just spoiling us. For those of you unfamiliar with Orcutt, his instrument of choice is a 4-string acoustic guitar which he plays (and abuses) with a heady originality. Bashing out impassioned primitive blues explorations he makes nods to American music’s rich history, but there is never a sense that this is mere reverence. Orcutt is not trying to retrace the footsteps of his heroes; in fact he is to classic blues what Hecker is to early electronic music, both hero and anti-hero simultaneously. This is noisy, raw and almost entirely out of time; Orcutt plays with the kind of intensity rarely heard from any musician, let alone a guitarist. There is a percussive quality, an electronic harshness and a punkish irreverence all tempered with a backbone of pure soul. Do not miss this album under any circumstances, trust me it’s good for what ails ya!