Cuneiform
2003
Uses Wrist Grab
About This Album
Musician, composer, and computer programmer Nick Didkovsky seems to have so many projects and possibilities rattling around in his cranium that his guitar-playing abilities tend to get overlooked. He uses interactive computer technology extensively in his Doctor Nerve group, and in their most recent recording, Ereia, he experimented compositionally with a combination of avant-rock band and string quartet. So this stripped-down trio album, recorded with longtime Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper and drummer John Roulat, is, in a sense, Didkovsky's equivalent of Frank Zappa's Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar series -- a chance for electric guitar enthusiasts to hear a great axeman at work in settings that are designed to bring his guitar front and center. However, Didkovsky's restless imagination would not allow him to settle into a predictable groove no matter what he was doing, so the overall effect of this recording is closer to Fred Frith-style experimentation than standard displays of fretboard dexterity. Musically, it covers a whole lot of territory, even if Didkovsky's instrumental prowess is the intended focus.

Techno-geek that he is, Didkovsky finds a way to indulge his interest in cutting-edge technology by never actually playing with his two fellow musicians on Uses Wrist Grab, but instead exchanging and assembling all 14 pieces on the CD through the use of MP3 and CD-ROM audio files.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,6,12 and 14)

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