On Blackouts, Manuel Gottsching returned to the guitar once more to release his masterwork of the Virgin era. His blend of soulful electric guitar with whooshing synthesizers and sequencers has never been matched to this day. The set of tracks 'Midnight on Mars', 'Don't Trust the Kids', and 'Blackouts' is simply astounding, and Manuel's guitar playing here is hotter than anywhere since the early Ash Ra Tempel days. The title track is absolutely on fire by the end of the piece. 'Shuttle Cock' possesses the sound on sound guitar of Inventions For Electric Guitar.
The original LP states that Gottsching plays "Sequencer, Keyboards, and a lot of guitar" and he thanks Udo Arndt for the "lonely guitar sound". As well as "This record should be heard comfortably". I cannot for the life of me understand the criticism this album gets. I've had this on LP for over 30 years, and there is an amazing vibe here that I never tire of. I've spent many hours closing my eyes and listening intently to it visualizing the imaginary movie it projects. A brilliant masterwork for my tastes.
Ownership: LP: 1978 Virgin (Netherlands). Single sleeve. Acquired at The Record Gallery in Dallas (1985). It was a really cool store in a hip part of Dallas near downtown that had tons of European imports (primarily electronic focused) and doubled as an art gallery. I learned about dozens of albums from that store - as well as spending my entire 1985/86 summer-from-college employment paychecks there.
CD: 2008 Arcangelo (Japan). Papersleeve edition. Has Manuel Gottsching's name on it instead of Ashra.
1985; 2/9/01 (Gnosis); 1/22/15 (new entry); 6/17/18
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