Paul Metzger continues to pile up the plaudits from critics and peers alike for his virtuosic string-slinging, gaining notice through his CD on Chairkickers and his split LP with Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano on Roaratorio. Metzger’s modified banjo is tricked out with additional sympathetic raga strings, although the compositions onGedanken Splitter are informed by much more than Eastern drone music alone. Recorded in the same period as 2007’s Deliverance on Locust Music, this is a more jagged and aggressive (although no less accessible) affair. Metzger winds these improvisations around thornier threads than on his previous releases, and while never turning completely abstract, Gedanken Splittermoves even further away from anything resembling typical banjo fare. This is mesmerizing and singular playing.

“Gedanken Splitter is ferocious, frantic, yet entirely on-course — easily Metzger’s most aggressive waxing yet.” – Bill Meyer, Signal To Noise

“Metzger’s furious banjo virtuoso returns for another perplexing, yet rewarding set of avant-tantrums. Taking on percussive qualities as well as sounding like a mutation of sitar, steel acoustic, and banjo just, he’s restrung and modified his instrument to take on tasks it was never designed for, so his composition accounts for what he’s allowed himself to do as much as where his head is to bring it across. Since nobody else has ever written for this variation of the instrument before, a lot of what you hear on Metzger’s recordings takes this innovation into account, tempering clawhammer playing styles with what he’s been able to create outside of it, applying an atonal, clashing chord structure across prickly rhythmic playing. Use of space seems to be frowned upon, and few notes are allowed to ring out as Metzger thrashes away at his monstrosity, playing in uncharted territory and shaking up the audience in the process. Engaging but quite uneasy.” – Doug Mosurock, Dusted

“If Paul Metzger’s last album Deliverance evinced his yearning to free the banjo from the shackles of convention, Gedanken Splitter shows what comes after the chains hit the earth… Metzger’s attack is unmatched in the new American Primitive camp.” – Bill Meyer, The Wire

“His music can remind you of a raga with its long introductory sections and spiraling modal fretwork, or suggest a careening detuned front porch blues, but it’s often hard to relate what he’s doing to any familiar musical style.” – Clifford Allen, Signal To Noise

“A stellar little record” – Patrick Marley, Bixobal

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Paul Metzger / banjo, guitar

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Recorded by Dave Onnen. 

Available as a 320k MP3 or 24bit FLAC download  

Tracklisting:

1. Geschenk - 6:00
2. Zugentgleisung - 14:14
3. Gedanken Splitter - 19:10