Another Perfect Day [LP]

Bill Orcutt - Another Perfect Day [LP]

Recorded by Shaun Crook at Cafe OTO November 14 2023. London England "Another Perfect Day is Bill Orcutt's first solo electric guitar record since 2017's eponymous Bill Orcutt. While that eight-year gap might not seem like a ton of time on the cosmic scale it nonetheless represents a busy half-decade plus for Orcutt projects: a raft of improv collaborations an acclaimed run of chopped and looped albums on Fake Estates and the collision of Orcutt's computer and guitar music on Music For Four Guitars and last year's How to Rescue Things both on Palilalia. The undeniable alchemy of those latter mashups inspired not only a wider appreciation of Orcutt-as-composer but also the resurrection of Orcutt-as-bandleader as the Bill Orcutt Quartet hit the road in support of Four Guitars Orcutt's first work with a proper score (courtesy of Shane Parrish). All of the above makes 2025 the perfect year to reacquaint ourselves with Orcutt-as-solo-performer wielding his trademark four-string rather than a mouse running the neck rather than shuffling waveforms blasting through Cafe Oto's tattered Fender Twin (the cover model for the aforementioned How to Rescue Things) rather than a pair of ancient NS-10s. Indeed this 2023 performance at Oto East London's finest music establishment boomerangs back into the slashing chords and frenzied double- picking of the Harry Pussy years tossing the gentler melodic glow of the last few solo records into the dustbin. In other words this may be Orcutt's most overtly punk-rockist record since Gerty Loves Pussy his first solo electric LP from a decade ago. It's an affirmation that Orcutt is above all a lead player-angular runs scaling the heavens ricocheting back to ground zero before climbing again. Orcutt builds tension with short phrases repeated with slight variability until it seems like they'll never stop finally slamming into a fresh line like the dawning valley at the crest of the mountain pass. Another Perfect Day is ultimately something of a solo guitar Nouveau Roman an exhilarating run through melodic reiteration impossible crescendos (check out those ecstatic crowd hoots on "For the Drainers") breaking into-a moment rarely found on an Orcutt record-soft whisper-quiet tracer notes at the end of "A Natural Death." Another Perfect Day returns Orcutt to the immediacy of his earliest records while maintaining the melodic complexity phrasing and flow of a player who's been going what-four-plus decades now? And when he taps his roots it's a reminder of exactly what was so exciting about Orcutt's playing in the first place."-TOM CARTER 1. Some Hidden Purpose / O Platitudes 2. The Life of Jesus 3. A Natural Death 4. The World Without Me 5. For the Drainers