PHIL BROWN
Imagine This
philbrownguitar.com
Ever pushing himself and his playing, guitar ace Phil Brown put a lot of time into making this set sound just so, to crystallise his ideas and produce and engineer the cuts into final most effective form. This project included stints over in Germany with the contribution of sound genius Walter Quintus, so what we have here is an album pieced together in Germany, Albaquerque, Denver ( home of PB supporter and enthusiast Jay Shanker ), Los Angeles, Santa Fe and Austin. That the songs still sound organic and warm is a testament to the skills at work here….
The spiky guitar work still draws the ear of the listener on Phil Brown’s records – he plays without a pick and with subtle and virtually subliminal use of the vibrato bar attached to the bridge. This is a guitar part / addendum often wrongly called ‘ a tremelo’ – I hate them and it’s the first thing I take off a guitar if one is fitted. On certain guitars eg Yamaha RGX of which I have few models a similar waver to the note can be achieved by very slightly loosening the bridge so it still stays in tune and even clusters of notes can be wobbled up or down with your palm, as you select. Brown uses the bar to shimmer harmonics or put a sly bend into a lick, so people hearing him do get the Jeff Beck influence however there is much is the PB armoury that alumnus Jeff doesn’t have. For instance Phil’s trump card being one of the greatest dry voices in rock-blues outside of David Bowie. Often those hearing Phil Brown’s recordings are dazzled by the guitar but they still ( or their girlfriends still ) ask who the singer is. And it’s Brown….
This set includes new originals ( though he didn’t include his definitive raspy reading of his favourite Little Feat number and mine ‘All That You Dream’ – next time please, BoxCar ?). Opener ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’ commences with an ethereal keyboard wash and low register bass burbling before the airy vehicle with its Jack Bruce / Wheels of Fire-era style phrasing and drums creeping into across-time patterns here and there. Meantime the guitar hums, twinkles and comments in the depth of the mix as cymbal clouds float across the speakers..then the guitar starts to trill and whine in high piched mode before the vocal returns. It’s an otherworldly and brave starter cut but in a way typical of this sonic painter.. seriously, Brown is not competing with the Aerosmiths and Kiss type bands and neither is he out to in any way challenge the Satriani’s or Vai’s. He can play very fast indeed but chooses not to most of the time and opts to let the songs breathe. ‘Blessing In Disguise’ is a soft and reflective outing with a fine vocal. Brown has soaked up James Taylor as well as Mahavishnu and hence has likely the widest guitar-and-vocal vocabulary of any artist out there. Just listen to his work on Cher’s mysterious and hard-to-find heavy rock album ‘Black Rose’ for proof. I eventually tracked one down in Italy !
The jazzy and European-mood ‘Brigitte’s Blues’ is a nod to a Gallic beauty and believe me there’s a backstory here……as a composition this wouldn’t be out of place on an album by West Coast dreamweaver Michael Franks and again the guitar commentary is kept sparse and effective. At 3:10 the axe starts to sing like a nocturnal hummingbird over the shuffling chordal chug ; the loping funk of ‘California Zen’ has maybe the best singing performance on the album, the chorus has a light lifting effect as the soft-psych touches tickle the ears. One quick point, this crafted music takes on different timbres depending upon the playback volume selected. This is a number you can play very loud and I promise you, new elements emerge, it’s not mixed for radio though Brown’s long-term studio experience means he could easily do this.
Regal volume swells herald ‘Good To Be Back’ which expresses some regrets at life as lived but stresses survival and the attainment thereof. Yet again some lovely vocal arrangement touches and they surely suit this poem-set-to-music. Linear guitar emerges loud and proud…
Title cut ‘Imagine This’ is maybe Phil’s ‘Are You Experienced’ in mood. Twisting figures
descend into thick-string grunts and a philosophical lyric takes the listener’s mind into unenvisioned scenario’s. And not of the latterday John Lennon’s type either. A heavy beat doesn’t dominate the song and the gurgling guitar floats over the sound with hints of flanging over hammer-ons and blues figures.
“Lost In Austin’ is a guitar journey in a curious hinterland somewhere between Mahavishnu’s ‘Emerald Beyond’ and Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’ in mood but Brown’s phrasing with palmed vibrato et al is entirely his own. It sounds sad but determined and all without words, driving into an intensity against stern bass figures and clattering drumwork. ‘Love Will Find Way’ starts eerily before a dark rhythm takes over and into a song about the search for love ; ‘One Teaspoon At A Time’ sounds as though it’s looking for film to feature in with its horn touches ; the strident ‘Paper Doll’ has an immediacy that sets it apart from the dreamier tinge of much of the material here and strangely wouldn’t be out of the place on the new Bowie album, fuzzy guitar break and all, which – like Earl Slick – blends edge and melody against an excellent vocal.
‘Shakespeare Told Me’ is a jagged stabbing song which is catchy as hell and finds Brown sounding a tad conspiratorial and spinning out curled guitar riffs over clipped funk chords. A sinister tread tracks ‘Strangers In Paradise’ with vocal mixed forward over what sounds like fretless bass and short-delay damped guitar chording. This is maybe the best song here, it’s pure Phil Brown in sound and delivery. Electric folk is the style of ‘Trouble’ and perhaps demonstrates what PB got out of early Dylan is to be found here, lilting guitar chord changes to the fore. Could run straight into Roger McGuinn’s “Fifth Dimension’ ! and a similar tempo, to boot…
The set closes with ’Crossroads’ with its industrial arrangement warping the Robert Johnson gem into an alien landscape setting. To be frank I’ve heard enough Robert Johnson versions to last me a few lifetimes but at least this takes the song somewhere fresh, I suppose
So..not at all the album you might expect from an acknowledged guitar hotshot..not once does Brown sound as though as he’s trying to impress anyone. But throughout, this album sounds very personal indeed and very accomplished
Pete Sargeant
