Oh. (guitars, etc . . .)

Roger Miller (Mission of Burma Roger Miller, not the do-wacka-do Roger Miller, though I am a fan of him as well) tossed off this minor gem on Forced Exposure in 1988. Constructed on a four track, Miller plays all the instruments himself, save an appearance by Peter Prescott on bass.

Miller always had a rocker's heart to go with his avant garde head. Clint Conley had the rep as Burma's hook guy, but for me, Miller's "Forget" is one of the best rock songs of all time. Here as well, the obviously experimental nature of the project is unified by a pop-like structural undercurrent. Though there are the straight up experimental moments (the original recording of Burma's "Fun World" played over and over again, each time sped up beyond recognition and overlaid with record surface noise, seems to be an overt nod to Fluxus), there is a skeleton here often lacking in noise records.

There are voices here, though not a lot of recognizable lyrics per se. Miller applied randomization techniques to Burma lyrics for one song, and sang another in a made up language vaguely resembling Russian or German.

Front and center is Miller's fascination with guitar textures. On all the tracks he stacks up guitars electric and acoustic, tuned and detuned, picked, strummed, and feeding back. This approach matures on side two with a version of Sun Ra's "Space is the Place" followed by a feedback meditation called "The Forrest".

Being a huge Mission of Burma and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic fan, I kept an eye on Miller's output, but most of it was somewhat uneven. This record, though considered by Miller to be more of a sketchbook (from the liner notes: "I consider this record to be a collection of ideas, which hopefully will be felt as unified."), still to me is the best non-Burma or Birdsongs record that Miller recorded. I also had a chance to see him live around the time this record appeared, and it was a fantastic show . . . better than the No Man show I saw a few years later (a show that remains the only show I've seen where I thought a band I liked was actually too loud). I'm not sure if this record is still available through Forced Exposure, or if it is anywhere on the internets, but if you can find it, snatch it up. It's a pearl.