The Reading-born, world-inspired guitarist Mike Cooper has followed a path of never taking the expected or “right” turn, pressing against the boundaries of popular musical culture since the 1950s. Known primarily for his folk/blues/jazz playing in the 1960s and 70s, Cooper has set upon a much different course since then. Taking in every conceivable musical influence along the way, he has dabbled in all manners of avant music. His discography takes another twist with the release of his new exploration, New Guitar Old Hat Knew Blues.
Cooper’s latest is a marvel, an innovative set consisting of Cooper’s improvised “Spirit Songs,” fusing his unforgettable guitar manipulation with what he calls a “William Burroughs/Brion Gyson cut-up technique on a couple of Thomas Pynchon novels” for words. Despite sticking mostly to his vintage National resophonic steel-bodied guitar since the 1970s, New Guitar sees Cooper set aside the lap steel in favor of a wooden-bodied short scale guitar. New guitar, new sounds, same haunting effect, as you can see and hear below in the video of the album’s “Shadows of Silk.”
New Guitar Old Hat Knew Blues is available now courtesy of Room 40, the Brisbane-based bastion of sound and art who has long-championed Cooper (label boss Lawrence English dubs Cooper as “the icon of post-everything music”). This recording is an almost complete show recorded live last March at La Cave 12 in Geneva, Switzerland, excluding “the first five minutes or so while I was warming up which I have saved for another occasion,” says the man himself. There is no doubt that “first five minutes or so” will be given the same bizarre and fascinating treatment we have come to expect from this adventurer at a later date.
Cooper is playing in Europe and the UK as you read this and throughout the rest of September and October. This is a rare set of dates from a truly honest and open innovator who never plays the same set twice, so best be gettin’ out to see him while the gettin’s good. Hawaiian shirts recommended but not mandatory…
Cooper tires? Never!
09.21.16 - Bergen, Norway - TBC
09.24.16 - Eupen, Belgium - Meakusma Festival
09.25.16 - Eupen, Belgium - Meakusma Festival
10.02.16 - London, England - Arts Cafe
10.05.16 - Sheffield, England
10.06.16 - Bradford, England
10.07.16 - London, England - The Ivy House
10.08.16 - Liverpool, England
10.12.16 - Valencia, Spain
10.14.16 - Barcelona, Spain
10.22.16 - Valencia, Spain
10.25.16 - Nantes, France
10.26.16 - Nantes, France
10.29.16 - Huesca, Spain
New Guitar Old Hat Knew Blues tracklist:
01. Knew Strings
02. Shadows of Silk
03. Voodoo Phone
04. Dream Bodies
05. Bad Tempered Unprepared Guitar
06. Sage and Thyme (for Rupert Brooke)
07. Call in the Noise
08. Tristes and Milongas
09. Giacinto in Moments of Reverie
10. The White Ships Silence
11. The Migrants Song
More about: Mike Cooper
