Joel Harrison &. Anthony Pirog: The Great Mirage

The gritty, jammy sonics of the leadoff title track quickly convince the listener that avant guitarists Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog are hellbent on getting it all out of their systems on The Great Mirage.

Bassist Stephan Crump, who lays down his acoustic bass and goes electric, and daredevil drummer Allison Miller, who has absolutely no problem going from zero-to-eternity and cymbal splash to pure bash, sign on and hell breaks loose: witness the obstinate, speed-rock take on Keith Jarrett's surly "Mortgage On My Soul" (from 1972's Atlantic album Birth), wherein the eccentric original gets doused with some angry octane and comes cuttingly into focus. It is a prize, whirlwind performance that leaves the ears burning.

The Krautrock inspired "Critical Conversation" barely holds its runaway energy, running up against the guardrails, leaving sprays of sparks in its wake. Harrison's delicately mellifluous, Bill Frisell tinged "There's Never Enough Time" and "I'll See You in the Shining World" hold a quiet light, a slow fire that Miller hauntingly steadies and Crump keeps close to the vest.

Acknowledging no particular margin or style, anything that falls into Pirog and Harrison's gaze throughout the entirety of The Great Mirage is more than fair game. Thus we have the rushing, neo-RnB of "East Hurley" butting up against the distorted power blues of "Clarksdale" and the two-sided Neil Young-ian riffed "Buffalo Heart" and more country dappled "Desert Solitaire." Whatever the moment, and The Great Mirage is full of them, each player meets the challenge head on.

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