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John Fahey
The Yellow Princess
Vanguard VMD-79293
CD
£13.99
On the back of the late-60s freak/folk boom Fahey joined the likes of Buffy Sainte-Marie, Country Joe & The Fish, Peter Walker and Richard & Mimi Farina on Vanguard and recorded two great albums, Requia and The Yellow Princess. Of the two, 1968's The Yellow Princess remains the strongest side, showcasing some of his most dazzling playing while including experiments in electric group composition with members of Randy California's Spirit and one-time Byrds drummer Kevin Kelley. If the album feels a little more self-consciously adventurous than the last few Takoma titles - and the electric group tracks a little out of synch with the rest of the record - Fahey's solo playing is uniformly jaw-dropping, especially on the gloriously ornate title track and the ferociously atonal "Lion". "The Singing Bridge Of Memphis, Tennessee" is one of his eeriest compositions for turntable, guitar and tape, giving voice to architecture in the way that only Fahey could. Highly recommended.
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