When we last dwelled into the career of the ever-fantastic John Frusciante, we got through the first half of his discography – an assortment of albums with artistic growth in every way but nothing really to tie them together outside the obvious matters. However, as we descend to check the man’s works after 2004’s Shadows Collide With People, we’ll enter what one could call the Record Collection era (after the label his future album would be released under) or 2004 craze. A short while after the release of Shadows, John announced that he was going to release six more recordings, solo or side project, in 2004, one per month. In the end it didn’t quite work out the way it was planned as some months got skipped and the final release would see the light of day in January 2005, but regardless of all that it was a celebration of massive inspiration. The most overwhelming thing in the whole fuss is that pretty much all of these releases are brilliant.

The six 2004 albums each have a lot of things that bind them together as one entity – outside release dates and the fact that most of these were born from the same sessions, each album is home-produced. The purposedly sought out minimally lo-fi quality to the recordings (what one would imagine a high-quality home recording would sound like) lends each album a beautiful warmth and personal touch. It’s like little living room sessions in your own home. While sonically they’re bound, the styles however vary from one album to another. The basic gist stays the same in most cases – Frusciante’s warm, elegiac rock moodiness – but the actual style the final song comes out varies greatly.

The Will to Death (June 2004)

John himself has described The Will to Death as the opposite of Shadows Collide With People. Where Shadows basked in crystal clear wall of sound production and endless armies of backing vocal harmonies and keyboard textures, The Will to Death takes a more minimal, grounded approach. The sound is warmer and less studio-produced, the backing vocals are nearly gone and the musical backing is mainly stripped down to the basic guitar-drums-bass companionship (though a couple of songs use a keyboard in a more important role, they never seize control). And where Shadows had a very upbeat, energetic sound to it, Will calms down and lets its soft melodies ring in a more melancholy, softer soundworld.

The Will to Death is an autumn album, despite its summer release. Colourful leaves give the soil a carpet, rain beats down against the window, cold wind blows outside and here you are, listening to the album in your own privacy. There’s melancholy in the sound but it’s not the downer kind. It’s a weird mix of happiness and sadness, a complacent calmness that relaxes and smoothes. The songs have no hurry and even the rockers sound calmer. There is an overwhelming, down-to-earth beauty all around the music. It’s not an album that takes great effort to create a thick atmosphere or beautiful sound, instead everything simply exists already in the songs even with the slightly stripped-down approach.

The Will to Death is one of my very favourite Frusciante albums, and in a way it’s an album that suits wonderfully as the first purchase of a fledgling Frusciante fan. It has all of the man’s wonderful qualities in an instantly appealing yet wonderfully deep package.

(the Indie Paws mixtape vol. 3 contains a song – “A Doubt” – from this very album)

MP3: Loss
MP3: The Will to Death

Ataxia – Automatic Writing (August 2004)

This is where I have to disappoint you, dear readers. Despite the hefty amount of years between then and now, I still haven’t got this album. At the time I was stripped of money so I could not get it and ever since I’ve never remembered to get it or it’s been stupidly expensive.

Ataxia is/was a jam band consisting of John himself, Fugazi’s Joe Lally and Josh Klinghoffer. Their “Automatic Writing” sessions gave birth to ten songs, first five released in 2004 and the rest in 2007 as AW II (which I haven’t heard either). Ataxia tackles John’s prog rock and jam desires, most of the songs the band recorded are lengthy (half of them being over 10 minutes). What I’ve heard, which isn’t much, I’ve liked but before I actually get a hold on either of the albums, I can’t say anything for sure.

DC EP (September 2004)

The next Frusciante released turned out to be a 4-track EP. Some, including me, worried slightly if John really had enough material for all months considering the release of this ‘interlude’, but we’d be proven wrong later on.

As it turns out, DC EP isn’t much of a hoorah but it’s a good EP. It’s only four tracks and lasts around 12 minutes, the style being pretty reminiscent of what came out from The Will to Death sessions. There’s a bit more ‘energy’ to these four songs though I use that term very loosely as most of the EP is pretty mid-tempo – they however have a sort of louder life to them. The Will to Death’s summer version, in some manner. The key track is the leading song “Dissolve” with its instant stickiness, though all the four songs are good additions to the man’s catalogue.

I’d say DC EP is the only slight disappointment of the album run. It doesn’t last very long and while the tracks are good, they’re not much of standouts in the man’s giant song library. Still a swell thing however.

Inside of Emptiness (October 2004)

Most of Frusciante’s solo work is quite melodic, as you’ve probably realised however. His rock n roll side is unleashed during his day job as the Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist. However, for the duration Inside of Emptiness, John decided to spread his riffmaster tendencies to his solo realm as well. Inside of Emptiness rocks. The riffs are loud and the guitars scream. And so does John a couple of times.

Inside of Emptiness is Frusciante’s rock album. It’s not all blaze and volume – it has its tender sides too – but there is a heavier emphasis to the rawer side of electric guitar, hard riffs and solos instead of melodic notes. There’s a couple of slower songs here and especially the slow jam anthem “Look On” with its beautiful, seemingly neverending finale is one of John’s finest songs. About half of the album is material like this: they’re more melodic and more reminiscent of his usual solo material at the time but still retain the edge the rest of the album has. And, well, the rest of the album just blasts it away like no tomorrow. It’s fast and furious.

Emptiness’ problem lies in the home production the rest of the albums here use to their advantage. The sounds for the rhythm section aren’t particularly strong on any of the albums but they suit the melodic, lower-tempo material – they give the songs a firm yet still soft beat which works wonders. But when it comes to rocking, sounds should have a bit more hardness to them. Something that channels the raw energy that blasts through the music. On Emptiness the focal points are John and his guitar while the rhythm section operates quietly on the background. They do their job well, but would need a bit more oomph in order to not leave the rockers feel a bit… tamer than they should.

Emptiness is my least favourite of the actual albums released during the period, but it’s less to do with the song material (an album with gems like “Look On” or “What I Saw” cannot be bad) and more to do with the sounds this time.

MP3: 666

A Sphere in the Heart of Silence (with Josh Klinghoffer) (November 2004)

Josh Klinghoffer’s been making music with John ever since Shadows Collide With People, playing instruments and occasionally lending his vocals on John’s solo albums (and Ataxia obviously), but it was A Sphere in the Heart of Silence where he finally got his name alongside John as the credited artist on the cover. What the electronic instrumental interludes on Shadows started is now continued on Sphere: Frusciante’s electronic album.

There’s still plenty of the more traditional rock instruments on Sphere, but the main emphasis is on machines. Synthesizers, drum machines and computer programming are the name of the game. With the emphasised role of Klinghoffer portrayed on the name of the project comes a larger participation in vocals and general contribution.

Sphere starts with a fantastic eight and a half minute instrumental loop-jam that’s highly reminiscent of the amazing modchip scene works. The next two tracks are mainly manned by Frusciante’s vocals, the two after see Klinghoffer taking a more audible role, the following “Surrogate People” has equally shared vocals and finally Frusciante finishes the album with a short solo piece. The atmosphere is dense and frantic throughout the album, at times sounding downright mad and snapped. The sounds of the old-skool synthesizers cannot be praised enough and the characteristic touch they have give the album its own unique aural touch.

Sphere is subtly brilliant. It’s the largest grower out of all the Frusciante albums but the density of the work, the wonderful atmosphere of it all combined with some excellent tunes reward those who fall in love with it. This is a line of work I’d love to see more from Frusciante and it’s already been rumoured that a sequel for this album could be seen in the future. Until then, the 7 songs on Sphere have to do. Much thanks to their depth, they last long as well.

MP3: Walls

Curtains (January 2005)

The final album of the series missed its December release and instead surfaced the following year, sadly breaking the wonderful 2004 run of albums by reaching its foot to a whole new year. In every part of its spirit it is still a part of the mad album dash however.

After the prog jam of Ataxia, riffage of Inside of Emptiness and the frantic electronic soundscapes of A Sphere in the Heart of Silence, Curtains sits down and relaxes. For 34 minutes the spotlight is on just John and his acoustic guitar. Other instruments pop by here and there, sometimes to a larger effect (the keyboard-heavy “Ascension” or the powerful crashes of “Control” to name a few) but the emphasis stays on John, his strong yet gentle voice and the melodies and strums of his trusty acoustic guitar. For 34 minutes it feels like John is there in the room with you, singing for you.

Curtains is John’s most beautiful album. It’s gentle and warm, full of romantic melancholy and bittersweet happiness. The lyrics take a turn to the intensely personal, be it John’s own or a fictional character’s musings. The many-a-times mentioned warm homely sound shines the greatest on Curtains, with the home studio echoes and makeshift acoustics ringing gorgeously in the air. Frusciante has often stated the equal importance of a note played and a note not played, and on Curtains he uses silence and space to a great effect.

Short it may be, but Curtains has just the right length. The shortness of it also compells the listener to play it immediately again after finishing. Curtains is captivatingly heartfelt album, and easily one of Frusciante’s very, very best.

MP3: The Past Recedes
MP3: Time Tonight

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And thus we have reached the end of our retrospective on John Frusciante’s career. There’s still one more milestone as his new album The Empyrean is soon officially released. You can be sure you’ll be getting a review of that (and that won’t be the only update about him in the future). In the meantime, why not introduce yourself to the man’s fabulous work? Frusciante continues to be one of my very favourite artists due to the combination of his gorgeous voice, fantastic songwriting skills and sheer amount of personal power and heart he invests into his songs, making each touch the listener.

He’s got the magic touch, I tell you.

Tags: John Frusciante

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