I first heard of Pete Nolan as drummer for the Magik Markers. After that, I started recognizing his name everywhere, popping up on Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice records, etc, but I figured his talents started and ended with drumming. Well, not just plain old drumming, but such heavy and inspired drumming that it's enough to keep Elisa and Leah's guitars from completely gushing out into a pile of goo. Well, turns out Pete's not just a drummer, he's got a half dozen solo releases of intimate 4-track folk and experimental guitar & noise pieces - all CDRs and cassettes before this one - and on top of that, his part in the amazing GHQ trio is predominantly guitar.
Nolan's first bigger-than-a-micro release is Requiem for Ming Aralia under the name Spectre Folk (note: the second word in Nolan's pseudonym can change to fit the mood of the music, e.g., Spectre Fone and Spectre Flux). Requiem... is actually a re-release of his self-titled CDR Nolan self-released on his Arbitrary Signs label. Unless you're Nolan's roommate or brother, you probably don't have that CDR anyway, but to fill it out, Nolan has added an extra 8 minute track "Indianana," a great guitar meditation with guest spirit-form electronics from Burning Star Core's Spencer Yeh.
If you've been digging GHQ as much as I have, chances are you'll find enough in Nolan's solo material to make it worth your while. The ten minute "Tendrils Floating Fastly" that opens the album is downright amazing. Psychedelic feedback incantations rise up like lazy swirls of smoke. The whiffs of smoke mix with jittery, hesitant string trembles, creating a spiritual, soothing, room-filling vibe. "Bindi Clip" is also great, drenching the sound with insect-like sounds, masking a soft, quiet guitar riff.
While those two songs and "Indianana" are pretty experimental, the album has an equal amount of starkly intimate folk songs. You can hear the spools on the 4-track turning; you can tell there's no one else in the room, just Nolan moaning out his lyrics. Included in these folk songs is a cover of the early Byrds song "You Showed Me." Nolan ups the psych quotient, straining out the words and pairing the acoustic guitar with flighty electronics. "Been Here and Gone" is much more gentle and delicate, mostly just a soft strum and Nolan's voice repeating the same line over and over - lulling you to sleep - the tape hiss overpowering the background instruments.
