On his fourth album of what he describes as “transcendental shred electric guitar music”, musician and composer Cyrus Pireh continues to do what he does best: Craft unique, oddly melodic, cathartic music using the raw power of the electric guitar and little else. It’s no surprise that Thank You, Guitar is on Palilalia Records, the label formed by fellow trailblazing guitar weirdo Bill Orcutt. There are certainly parallels between Pireh’s approach and that of Orcutt (not to mention kindred spirits like Wendy Eisenberg, Jessica Ackerley, Henry Kaiser, and Ava Mendoza). Pireh’s circular, often minimalist style is countered by the noise, distortion, and repetition of his execution.
It’s not always an easy listen – fans of a “lighter” guitar touch should look elsewhere – but Pireh’s sense of adventure and willingness to let the harsh sounds of his electric guitar take the listener to a higher plane is a highly admirable goal. Using a variety of nine-string guitars, Pireh can greatly expand his sonic palette, and the opening title track proves this immediately. Lightning-fast notes, combined with the percussive thump of the strings, give the song a sense of expertise while also conveying a deep, melodic warmth.
Pireh also has a knack for using distortion and noise as definitive traits of his unique style. On “Amen Family”, the overmodulation introduces a punk sensibility to the song’s opening minutes before a more tempered approach is adopted. Pireh loves to dip in and out of moods, often within the space of one song, as he’s done on numerous solo albums, particularly Still Here, Still Ripping, and VISITOR.
While there is a stately beauty to fractured gems like “JRA Is Legend” and the angular elegance of “Free Palestine”, the “shred” aspect is taken to an extreme on “Infinite Shred”, four and a half gleeful minutes of rolling sheets of distorted, high-speed notes that sounds more like the blur of a jet engine than anything else. Songs like “Sheep Graze”, elegant playing dotted with the hums and the crackle of distortion, split the difference.
While Pireh’s main axe is a nine-string Esquire, he also plays a few other guitars with this string configuration, including a Future Lute (a Fender Stratocaster with a short neck) and uses a digital delay pedal generously. One of the best examples of this effect is on the gorgeous track “Tim”, recorded in 1995 with two friends from junior high and high school, Tim Ranttila (guitar) and Mike Murray (bass), and written by Ranttila. The churning, chiming delay running through the song is infectious and full of mystery.
The nine-string guitar concept originated from Pireh’s initial inability to play the high E string, as it constantly broke. When he acquired a 12-string electric guitar, he removed the two high E strings, as well as one of the low E strings, due to the improved bass response that resulted from having just one. “I also tune the whole guitar down four steps to B Baritone range,” he explained. “This makes it easier to cover the usual range of the electric guitar and most of the bass guitar, too. Larger range, thicker sound; these things are ideal for a solo instrument, and so I found it becoming my ‘thing’.”
Anyone who finds inspiration in the unique playing of current greats like Orcutt or legends like Gary Lucas (particularly his work with Captain Beefheart) will find plenty to enjoy on Cyrus Pireh’s Thank You, Guitar from a guitarist whose combined skill set and original ideas make for a completely new and welcome type of guitar hero.