funkadelic vs john frusciante

in 1971 funkadelic recorded an album called "maggot brain". the first song on the album "Maggot Brain" is a beautiful ten minute guitar solo by the great eddie hazel. eddie hazel was a guitar badass and in this track uses swirling guitar effects created by use of feedback and mad crazy reverb/delays, coming in and out of both left and right stereo speakers. this to me is guitar playing in the same vein as jimi hendrix and buddy guy



now after you've given maggot brain a healthy listen get your hands on a track by john frusciante called "before the beginning" from the album "the empyrean". you may say this is maggot brain in the year 2009. recently voted best guitarist of the last thirty years what makes this song amazing is his use of the studio and effects rather than the guitar playing itself. here john frusciante sits around the Em pentatonic scale but makes it sound much more complex than a study in the blues

at their simplest, both pieces are raw with emotion felt by the range of frequencies coming from the speakers, sounds that are produced by feedback, effects, and phenomenal gear. both guitarists manage to create an excitement in the music through the pushing and pulling of frequencies, creating walls of sound that rise and fall and swirl around your head

both these tracks must be played in stereo with the speakers spaced widely apart (not too wide otherwise the bass will be thin). the panning and effects are amazing through headphones but you will be missing out on the movement of air the speakers create, thus allowing the delays to move around the room
enjoy