On Texture Songs, Chuck Roth finds whole universes on the fretboard

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen a guitarist set up a spaceship-console pedalboard, then proceed to make the most boring music I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s true that oftentimes, the most beautiful guitars sound nothing like guitars – just ask my worn-out copy of Loveless, my battered Blue Bell Knoll – but that doesn’t mean that funnelling your sound through a data centre of effects is a failsafe winner. Bit of reverb? Nice, sure. Little bit of fuzz? Sure. Chorus? Go on, but don’t overdo it. A wah? A flanger? Come on now. On Texture Songs, his second album for Bill Orcutt’s Palilalia label, Chuck Roth rejects this decadence with aplomb. It’s one thing that his instrument always has a very clean sound, but quite another that that in itself is a vital part of creating something strange and beautiful. The seven tracks that make up Texture Songs are just one guitar and voice; raw takes that capture something incredibly fleeting. Roth’s voice is ghostly, and his playing sounds like broken glass. These twin elements orbit one another to take the music to another plane – sometimes gristly, sometimes stark, often beautiful. The lack of sustain on his instrument really he...