John Frusciante ": I I ." (2023)

: I I .

release date: Feb. 3, 2023

format: digital (10 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]

producer: John Frusciante

label: Avenue 66 - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Golpin" - 2. "MK 2.1" - 3. "Pyn" - 6. "Clank" - 9. "Sluice" - 10. "Firpln"

12th studio album by John Frusciante following Maya (Oct. 2020). The album is released on the German sublabel Avenue 66 to US parent label Acid Test on whose bandcamp site the album is available. The album has been released in two different versions: a 2 lp seven track vinyl issue titled . I : (pronounced 'one') and a 10 track digital version, sold as a double cd or as digital download [this] pronounced 'two' and called : I I . . The two albums are regarded by some as his 12th and 13th albums since they have rather distinct track listings, although, I think, you could argue they are only different versions. The shorter vinyl issue may also be found in a digital version [!] via bandcamp but it still comes without the vinyl only track ("OFD") making it a 6 track album. Frusciante has explained the different versions due to the limitations in the recording process from digital masters to the vinyl format - some sounds were simply not possible to record on vinyl, and then the running orders are also quite different.

: I I . is really something else from Frusciante, although, he has been experimenting with electronica over more than a decade, this new album is far from what you could describe as Frusciante's take on 90s idm, acid house, or break beat. Instead, this time he has succesfully composed his own mix of electronic music. Stylewise, it may not be groundbreaking material but Frusciante really explores some kind of sound frontier. At times, you may think it's only white noise or some kind of abstract, experimental electronica. And yes, but it's also more than just that. It's also music from someone who wants to challenge our perception of music - and that alone makes it an interesting album. The more I listen to it, the more I discover, and also: the more I enjoy it. It's definitely not background music for dinner at home or at a restaurant, but more like the kind of music you would listen to with your antennas tuned in.

A small recommendation.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]

cover . I : ('One')

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Return of the Dream Canteen" (2022)

Return of the Dream Canteen

release date: Oct. 14, 2022

format: digital (17 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]

producer: Rick Rubin

label: Warner Records - nationality: USA

13th studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers is the band's second full-length studio of the year following only 6 months after Unlimited Love, the band's first with returning guitarist John Frusciante. Both albums are with old associate Rick Rubin in the producer seat and together they have made two distinct RHCP albums with a more laid-back style founded on a great deal of improvisations and on a mutual understanding of "the real" RHCP sound. The first album included 17 tracks running for almost 75 minutes, and this new collection doubles that with its 75 minutes running time and 17 new compositions.

Wow! The scale of these two alone is an impressive achievement. In terms of style and sound they are closely related but it what strikes me is that this latter release seems more elaborated and less founded on free improvs, and since all 34 recordings stem from the same sessions it's likely that they have chosen a smart procedure of releasing the more incoherent collection first - it did come as the first RHCP album in six years and would be a most natural success alone from being the first new recordings for a very long time. This second collection contains several tracks that are more melody-based traditional compositions with A-, B-, and chorus parts, and it comes out as the more accessible collection.

I'm not a big fan of RHCP's improvisations, and in my mind, this new album just is a better album. That said, it's still difficult for a band like this to establish a strong bond to its musical traditions, its very distinct style and sound and still come up with something new. The album - or it basically applies both of the band's two albums of 2022 - is RHCP classic. This is not a band like U2, who all of a sudden comes up with a new sound but a band who has become stars via a certain combo of modern psychedlic rock, which bases its sound on a fusion of funk and alternative rock, and there's no intentions in changing that, which also means that what you get what you expect. No more, no less. And that's probably the weakness of the album - it's simply founded on previous releases, and every once in a while, you end up thinking "ah, this is based on that particular songt from that album", and I guess, there's no intentions in hiding that - it's simply a bunch of new songs building on old material.

[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, Pitchfork 6,3 / 10 stars ]

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Unlimited Love" (2022)

Unlimited Love

release date: Apr. 1, 2022

format: digital (17 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]

producer: Rick Rubin

label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

12th studio album by RHCP following nearly 6 full years after The Getaway (Jun. 2016). Aside from Rubin is back as producer, the biggest news is that this new album welcomes back John Frusciante, who then replaces Josh Klinghofer - the substitute for Frusciante for eleven years but also a guitarist who only contributed to the band's discography on the 2011 album I'm With You and on the 2016 album.

With Frusciante back, the band is reformed in its most potent line-up and Unlimited Love is just one of two full studio albums of the year - and with its 17 tracks and a total of 73 minutes running time, it's not even a short one!

Fans cheer and jump in joy - that's what they do, when their idols release new stuff, right! But it's been awhile since I saw myself as a "real" fan. I really enjoyed I'm With You, but since then, I found they mostly just seemed to lean back in the seats resting on their merits to live their own idolised rock star lives. Granted, it must be difficult to reinvent themselves, but with this it seems they just give it a go - perhaps thinking: "let's be loose, let's jam along and see where it takes us." And yes, a lot of people respond positively to this their certified most laidback album ever. Frusciante adds his neo-psychedelic electric vibes, Flea and Smith provide a punchy rhythm section as back bone, and Kiedis... well he mostly just babbles on, the way only he knows and the end result is solid RHCP. It's just without new strong songs - in fact there's hardly one great tune, but who give a shjite? It's RHCP, and they are entitled to release whatever they feel like. So that's it. Not an immediate favourite. Not in near future. In fact, not ever, but they play well together sounding like a RHCP copy band copying RHCP giving it as RHCP...

[ allmusic.com, Classic Rock 3,5 / 5, Pitchfork 5,4 / 10, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante "Maya" (2020)

Maya

release date: Oct. 20, 2020

format: digital (9 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,28]

producer: John Frusciante

label: Timesig Records - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Brand E" - 2. "Usbrup Pensul" - 3. "Flying" - 7. "Amethblowl" - 9. "Anja Motherless"

[ full album ]

11th studio album by John Frusciante following a series of releases under the moniker of Trickfinger with the album She Smiles Because She Presses the Button (Jun. 2020) as his most recent album, but already as of Mar. 2020, Trickfinger released the EP Look Down, See Us; however, his most recent album under his own name remains Enclosure from 2014. Frusciante began experimenting with electronic music about a decade ago, which saw him form Trickfinger as an outlet for mostly instrumental electronic music, but at the same time electronica became a strong influence in his other solo releases, and Maya appears as his first full electronic album to be released under his own name. Apparently, Maya was the name of his beloved cat, and this album is Frusciante's tribute to her.

Maya is made with breakbeat sampling at the heart of the compositions, and they simply sound much like Frusciante's own attempt with Brittish breakbeat anno 1992-ish - say, strongly The Prodigy-inspired compositions making it a bit of a strange experience. Some of the tracks here still sound great, although, altogether it's difficult to listen to without thinking the 1990s dance scene - but then again: it was a great and influential period, so why not reminding everyone about it?! And then, I think this is bettering his idm-fused acid house debut as Trickfinger.

[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Pitchfork 7,6 / 10, 👍Loud and Quiet 3 / 6 stars ]

Trickfinger "Trickfinger" (2015)

Trickfinger [debut]

release date: Apr. 6, 2015

format: digital (8 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,97]

producer: Trickfinger

label: Acid Test - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "After Below" - 2. "Before Above" - 7. "100mc4" - 8. "Phurip"

Full-length studio album debut by Trickfinger aka John Frusciante, thus not really being a pure musical debut as such, but Frusciante obviously is in need of a moniker to explore an electronic playground. His name is welded into an alt. rock sphere and Trickfinger in that respect sets him free to start anew. All tracks are credited Trickfinger as composer, instrumentalist, producer, and mixer.

Although, Frusciante explored electronic music on his most recent album Enclosure (Apr. 2014) this is something different by being only electronic music. It's instrumental progressive electronica, and in the style of acid house and idm. It's a bit of a mish-mash in terms of styles. It could indicate that Frusciante has become fascinated by the history of electronic music and that he has incorporated music from various periods in his own blend. That's not to say, it's a different approach from other electronic artists, but in this case Trickfinger comes out as something less original - there's a lack of direction, which isn't to say it's of lesser value.

With his new Trickfinger project, Frusciante once again showcases his very traits as an artist who only lives in non-conformity - his very name is a guarantee of musical progression. Trickfinger is a new direction for Frusciante, and a new territory to explore. This first album is a promissing start, although, there's much inspiration from other artists - e.g. Aphex Twin, Trentemöller, and with a certain influence from Jean-Michel Jarre - but Frusciante himself is an ingenious music maker and he will undoubtedly again produce more original works.

[ Exclaim! 4 / 5, 👍Pitchfork 5,9 / 10 stars ]

John Frusciante "Enclosure" (2014)

Enclosure
release date: Mar. 25, 2014
format: cd (ECM 72542)
[album rate: 3 / 5] [2,86]
producer: John Frusciante
label: The Record Collection - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "Shining Desert" - 2. "Sleep" - 4. "Stage" - 5. "Fanfare" - 6. "Cinch"

10th full-length solo album by John Frusciante is a further experiment into electronic, glitch pop and art rock as initiated with his 2012 album PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone and continued on the ep Outsides from 2013. At first I found this really poor - like an experiment taken too far. But... there's actually some interesting compositions here. Many of the tracks are piano- and vocal-based with synth drums hitting away and basically with scarse instrumental contributions. The best parts are when he seems to be what sounds like improvising on his guitar - in some places resembling music by Mike Oldfield... without comparison. It's really not all that bad, and I may just rate it higher in time. Anyway, it's clearly bettering his 2012 album.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo, Classic Rock 3 / 5, Q Magazine 2 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante "Outsides" (2013) (ep)

Outsides, ep
release date: Aug. 27, 2013
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Tracklist: 1. "Same" - 2. "Breathiac" - 6. "Shelf"

Studio ep by John Frusciante. This is really fine although he keeps to his new-found style of experimental and electronic. He understands to build a sound of emotions and takes the listener on excursions into an unknown external zone. It's both beauty and ugliness but held together in frames of powerful composition.

John Frusciante "PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone" (2012)

PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone
release date: Sep. 24, 2012
format: cd
[album rate: 2 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Hear Say" - 4. "Ratiug" - 6. "Mistakes" - 8. "Central" - 10. "After the Ending"

9th full-length solo album by John Frusciante follows The Empyrian (2009), and here he has really changed his style. The predecessor was stylistically unique, much like all his albums have been, but normally still close to its immediate predecessor, but on this you may hear what could be a natural consequence of his many recent collaboration works with Omar Rodríguez-López. This is much more of experimental electronic art rock than just regular alt. rock. Gone is also any traces of singer / songwriter, and what remains is his touch of neo-psychedelic. In some places, I think, there is musique concrete and in that way it shares bonds with works by Frank Zappa.
I have tried but I just don't like it.

John Frusciante "The Empyrean" (2009)

The Empyrean
release date: Jan. 20, 2009
format: cd
[album rate: 2,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Song to the Siren" - 3. "Unreachable" - 4. "God" - 7. "Enough of Me" - 8. "Central" - 10. "After the Ending"

8th solo album by John Frusciante, who all of a sudden didn't release a bunch of solo albums after his 2005 album, Curtains, but instead he focused on his work with Red Hot Chili Peppers and several collaboration jobs together with Omar Rodríguez-López, (from) The Mars Volta, and Ataxia. This album is alt. rock, indie rock with a singer / songwriter touch. Frusciante left RHCP later this year, and this time he was replaced by his friend Josh Klinghoffer.

John Frusciante "Curtains" (2005)

Curtains
release date: Feb. 1, 2005
format: cd (2009 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]
producer: John Frusciante
label: The Record Collection - nationality: USA

Track highlights: 1. "The Past Recedes" (4,5 / 5) - 2. "Lever Pulled" (3,5 / 5) - 3. "Anne" (3,5 / 5) - 5. "A Name" - 6. "Control" - 7. "Your Warning" - 9. "Ascension" - 10. "Time Tonight"

7th solo album by John Frusciante following less than three months after Inside of Emptiness (Oct. 2004). In 2004 he released Shadows Collide With People (Feb.), The Will to Death (Jun.), with the project-band Ataxia Automatic Writing (Aug.), the solo ep DC EP (Sep.), Inside of Emptiness (Oct.), and a collaboration album with Josh Klinghoffer: A Sphere in the Heart of Silence (Nov.); and after all that he released this in Feb. 2005.
Not only is he enormously productive in this period, he also manages to write great songs, AND to compose music that differs, being however, still very true to his expression. This is not like any of the other albums. The umbrella style is still alt rock, a genre he stays true to, but this is much more of a singer / songwriter album with little additional orchestration. It's like a progression from Shadows... a multi-layered complex album with additional vocals and instruments, over The Will... with its simple and raw expression, exploding in white noise on ... Emptiness, and ending with this, a "naked" narrating Frusciante and his first primarily acoustic guitar album.
"The Past Recedes" is such a marvelous track.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Sputnik Music 4,5 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante "Inside of Emptiness" (2004)

Inside of Emptiness
release date: Oct. 26, 2004
format: digital
[album rate: 3 / 5]

Track highlights: 1. "What I Saw" - 2. "The World's Edge" - 4. "A Firm Kick" (4 / 5) - 6. "Emptiness" - 8. "666" - 9. "Interior Two"

6th solo album by John Frusciante is already his third album of the year. Like most of his albums, this one is quite unique in its style. The Will to Death (Jun. 2004) was raw and simple in its alternative singer / songwriter rock style but this differs by being almost hard rock or grunge rock with its heavy metal distorted guitar sound and an occasionally screaming Frusciante. It's quite fascinating how he is capable of making guitar-driven alt rock in a singer / songwriter category and still come up with that many different expressions, experimenting with stylistic changes but still holding an album together as a coherent thing, being both a unique product as well as keeping an eye for good songwriting, compositionally and lyrically.

John Frusciante "The Will to Death" (2004)

The Will to Death
release date: Jun. 22, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]

Track highlights: 1. "A Doubt" (4 / 5) - 2. "An Exercise" - 3. "Time Runs Out" (4 / 5) - 5. "Unchanging" (4,5 / 5) - 8. "Wishing" (4 / 5) - 12. "The Will to Death"

5h solo album by John Frusciante and his second in 2004. Together with its predecessor, Shadows Collide With People (Feb. 2004), and his seventh, Curtains (Feb. 2005), they form three really fine works of art, and they are his perhaps three best albums.

This very album was the first I ever listened to by Frusciante solo, and I only came across this wonder by chance. The music is not very different from his first release this year but it has a more raw and simple expression. In some ways, I think, it even betters anything by Red Hot Chili Peppers, although, it's also very unlike any album by the band.

John Frusciante "Shadows Collide With People" (2004)

Shadows Collide With People
release date: Feb. 24, 2004
formt: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 1. "Carvel" (4 / 5) - 2. "Omission" (4 / 5) - 3. "Regret" - 4. "Ricky" - 6. "Every Person" - 9. "This Cold" - 11. "Song to Sing When I'm Lonely" - 12. "Time Goes Back" - 14. "Water" - 17. "Chances" - 19. "The Slaughter"

4th studio album by John Frusciante, although, many sites include From the Sounds Inside (2001) as his fourth, but that was a bunch of songs that Frusciante gave away to his fans for free, and only as downloadable material.

Shadow Collide... is made at his most productive time. In 2004 he not only released four studio albums, and his first in 2005 was released in February; he also found time to play with his old band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, AND he formed a collaboration project called Ataxia - so in essence, he recorded six albums in the span of six months!

This is a rather fine album, and it's not a short one as it comes with 19 tracks. It's a stylistic big change from synth to alt. rock, although a few tracks are synth experiments. Without being the same musical style, this is, in my mind, the Frusciante solo album that resembles the music of Red Hot Chili Peppers the most.
[ allmusic.com, The Guardian 4 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante "To Record Only Water for Ten Days" (2001)

To Record Only Water for Ten Days
release date: Feb. 13, 2001
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5]

Track highlights: 2. "Someone's" - 3. "The First Season" - 4. "Wind Up Space" - 5. "Away & Anywhere" - 7. "Fallout" - 9. "With No One" - 15. "Moments Have You"

3rd album by John Frusciante. After the debut in '94 he released his second solo album Smile From the Streets You Hold in '97. I haven't heard the album but after reading reviews and Frusciante himself telling that many of the tracks are from the same period as his debut album, I have neglected it - also, Frusciante himself has disowned the album as to poor.

This album is quite different from the debut, and it's said to have been made after a rehab period for his drug addiction. At least the songs seem organized in concordance with traditional songwriting procedures, which is also to say, that they appear as compositions with a start, a middle, and an end. On top of that, they have verses and choruses, and several tracks are rather good songs. The style is neo-psychedelic, indie rock and synthpop with a singer / songwriter touch. 

It's not bad. It's just not really great.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 3 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante "Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt" (1994)

Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt [debut]
release date: Mar. 8, 1994
format: digital
[album rate: 1,5 / 5]

Some tracks: 2. "My Smile Is a Rifle" - 3. "Head (Beach Arab)" - 4. "Big Takeover" - 8. "Been Insane" - 10. "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire" - 14. "Untitled #2" - 21. "Untitled #9" - 24. "Untitled #12"

Studio debut album by John Frusciante released on American Recordings. The album shows a completely different side to the guitarist of Red Hot Chili Peppers whom he left in 1992. Stylistically, it's a most evident example of Frusciante's interest in expressions of creativity made in "streams of consciousness". The first half of the album Tracks 1-12 are labelled "Niandra LaDes", and they were written shortly after the completion of Red Hot Chili Peppers' break-through album Blood Sugar Sex Magic (Sep. 1991), and the other half, tracks 13-25, labelled "Usually Just a T-Shirt" (commonly referred to as "Untitled #1-13") were recorded while touring with RHCP i.e. before breaking with the band but at a time when he had become a serious drug addict of heroin and cocaine. The music is said to reflect Frusciante's spirituality and an unbalanced emotional state, and also his drug abuse during the recording sessions, which took place in his own house from 1991-93. Anyway, it's apparent how the second part seems much more improvised. I have come to know of the music of Frusciante much later, and have only come across this album a few months ago, and I must agree to Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone Magazine that it mostly just appears to be 'ramblings' and what sound as rough demos. These takes may be avant-garde and / or experimental neo-psychedelic rock and instant expressiveness of a genius, but nevertheless, it ain't good.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5, Rolling Stone 2 / 5 stars ]

John Frusciante

~ ~ ~

John Frusciante took part in the initial heydays of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1988-92), especially in co-creating the great Blood Sugar Sex Magik double album (1991). As he left the band in '92, everyone saw how incapable the remainders of the band were in created anything of interest while he was gone, which he was in more than one sense. His drug abuse almost sent him to an early grave but luckily he stayed around. After years with heavy drug abuse, he resurrected, and then rejoined the Peppers in '98. He helped them back on track as they soon released Californication (1999), By the Way (2002), and later the double cd Stadium Arcadium (2006) before he left again in 2009, however, the Chilis were very fortunate this time in finding a highly capable substitute in Josh Klinghoffer, Frusciante's close friend. Meanwhile Frusciante's productive creativity also made room for a strong solo career of much more experimental rock nature and singer / songwriter style. Frusciante's music often deals with the more philosophical parts of life: life and death issues, and the conception of contact with a spiritual world. On his most recent albums he has continued the experimental side of rock with electronic and primarily instrumental compositions.

~ ~ ~

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991)

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

release date: Sep. 24, 1991

format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]

producer: Rick Rubin

label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

5th studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers following two years after Mother's Milk (Aug. 1989) is the band's first after signing with Warner and the second to feature new guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik introduces a new sound of the band. Like Mother's Milk was a turn away from the psychedelic and funky acid-rock into something with a stronger heavy rock profile, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is yet again a move in a new direction. On this, they still play as a tight energetic unit, but where the predecessor was in a way more focussing on old school rock with a heavy metal influence, this appears as a conglomorate of psychedelic rock, funk rock, and punk rock with room for other stylistic influences and melody-based compositions but held together in an original soundscape of their very own.

The album was met by critical acclaim, overwhelming sales numbers and it basically sky-rocketed the band from theatre concerts to stadium arenas. Apparently, the success was more than Frusciante had ever wanted and he found it more than difficult to come to terms with the fact that the tight unit he had only just entered now was about to be promoted as a major act. Disillusioned, following the release and still well into a promotion tour, Frusciante eventually left the band in early '92 and was subsequently replaced by Arik Marshall for the rest of the tour.

The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In retrospect (as of 2015), Blood Sugar Sex Magik remains the band's best album.

[ allmusic.com, Mojo 5 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine, Select 4 / 5 stars ]