200 Words: MARK FEEHAN
(In 200 Words, we highlight a new record we like a lot, via a 200-word review by Marc Masters and 200 words (or so) from the artist about whatever they choose.)
MARK FEEHAN - M.F. II LP (Richie / TestosterTunes)
Mark Feehan’s first solo album - 2012′s M.F. – was pretty chaotic, but apparently not chaotic enough. M.F. II raises Feehan’s musical entropy by degrees of magnitude, flying fast between noise-punk rants, spoken (in German?) word collages, blurry Residents-like sound experiments, and a bunch of excellent, highly-unique guitar pieces. Every time I get settled into thinking of M.F. II as whacked out audio art somewhere between Dr. Demento and Hanatarash, Feehan unfurls a masterful string seance that sounds like no one else I can think of currently.
I’m sure I’d love each individual track here by itself, especially those guitar-centered essays, but something about all the hectic juxtapositions and free-associative impulse on M.F. II makes each individual part more fascinating. It’s like the signal from a radio station if it was made of neurons rather than electrons, the sound of a restless brain rattling out ideas that would lose some of their strength were they to be considered too long before the next one comes shooting by. The dizzying swerves are fun, funny, and even serious, but best of all they make M.F. II a record that couldn’t be repeated even if Feehan himself tried.
– Marc Masters
MARK FEEHAN on M.F. II
I always try to create something that doesn't bore me. I have very little patience, so every track I make is an improvised one take. As soon as I'm happy with what I've got, it goes into the memory hole. I can't remember what I did or what the tuning was. "Five Stringer Discount”, for example, was the result of me somehow managing to break my bottom E while putting on new strings I just went with whatever the tuning was at that point. (Hence the five strings) I have no clue what the tuning was, so I'll never play that one again. I also tend to be all over the place with my choice of genre. I want every song to be completely different. A lot of the songs on this record were written while I was asleep, which adds to the weirdness. "The Sports" was one of them. I heard it, woke up and recorded it in 10 minutes. (Can't you tell?) All these songs were written and recorded over a long period of time but seem to fit together somehow. That's my musical approach, happy accidents.
M.F. II is out now on Richie Records/TestosterTunes. Buy it here.