The incorrigible spirit of the Great Koonaklaster, the title Fahey bestowed upon himself after his 90s comeback, lives on in this riotously diverse tribute from acolytes and friends gathered by the Chicago-based label which the guitarist frequented during the late 90s. This time, it’s not so much folk-blues getting homaged as Fahey’s later, neo-industrial experiments in avant-garde sound and racket.
Although Jack Rose’s Since I’ve Been A Man Full Grown revisits early 70s raga excursions, Sir Richard Bishop conjures a hearty swell of eerie dissonance on Hood River Lap Dance, Greg Malcolm’s Spanish Flang Dang marries innocent waltz-plucking with droning noise approximating the ventilator fan in Fahey’s hotel room recordings, while more beautifully unsettling noise occurs on Badgerlore’s squirming Red Apple, Pumice’s creaking Ceremonial Knives and Liehens’ spaced, disgruntled Escapisms In A Comedic Forum. Most spectacular is David Daniell’s closing 11-minute Crossing The Susquehanna River Bridge, where melodic finger-picking gives way to rolling vistas of coruscating feedback to cathartic effect. Most startling is the No Neck Blues Band’s freeform Overcome, a 1998 live assault with shouting from Fahey himself. With projects like this and Ace continuing to reissue back catalogue, Fahey still seems to be leading a not-soquiet revolution from beyond the grave.
