Track Listing

1. Arundel
2. Roadrunner
3. Pink Holler
4. Plastic Energy Man
5. Drunken Spree
6. Bups
7. Crowd Of One
8. I Am Not Lonely With Cricket
9. Knockin' The Casket
10. Up North Kids

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58218 in Music
• Released on: 1999-11-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
The enigmatic David Pajo, previously a mainstay of such left-field combos as Slint, Tortoise and Ariel M, returns to the fray hidden behind yet another new name, offering a body of drifting ambient instrumental compositions for guitar which evoke the spirits of Robert Fripp, Simon Jeffes and Michael Rother, to name a few. Nothing much happens in Live From A Shark Cage, except that pretty little tunes tinkle by, naggingly hypnotic rhythms invade the brain and pleasingly unfamiliar sounds tickle the senses. Occasional spoken vocal loops and quirky hummed phrases introduce a melancholic human element, but mostly this aural glimpse of heaven is plucked, picked and strummed on acoustic guitars. So long as people like Pajo--who neither knows nor cares how to manufacture chart success--are allowed to release CDs, there's hope for the soul of the music industry. --Johnny Black

Customer Reviews

Astonishing
This really is a beautiful album. Very different from what I expected. Dave Pajo is a very unique guitarist, who makes gorgeous music from all kinds of stringed instruments. The centrepiece track 'i am not lonely with cricket' shows that in the right hands, the guitar is an instrument that has by no means had all its ideas exhausted.

Absolutely stunning.
Dave Pajo appears in a new 'M' guise, and he's toned down his act to the bare minimum. The acoustic guitar playing is magnificent, and the sparse 'vocals' really add to the atmosphere that Pajo creates. After a few listens the previously inaccessible melodies start to wind around in your brain and you'll need one more listen to satisfy yourself. Basically Pajo is one of the best guitarists working at the moment, if only he'd tour a bit more!

Silent Guitar Hero
This is a wonderful album that showcases what a great guitarist can do. More in keeping with the 'experimental' guitar tropes of Robert Fripp rather than pyrotechnic speed-riffing of Satriani et al. However, just because you are a fast typer, it does not follow that you are going to write a good book. Extended metaphor over.

David Pajo is probably more renowned for his influential work in post-rockers Slint. And probably more famous (to his chagrin) in the ill-fated Zwan with Billy Corgan. A wonderfully talented guitarist, who has gone on to produce more vocal, folky albums.

Bookended with the stark and autumnal Arundel, 'Shark's Cage' starts as it means to go on. Hushed, wordless vocal refrains are sketched throughout this mainly instrumental album adding to its ghostliness. Roadrunner is a lovely little chime tied to a somnambulistic sequenced loop. Drunken Spree is the kind of Raga/Dustbowl groove that the Doors started with The End, only this time you are spared Jim Morrison's tortuous walk through the ancient gallery. The wonderful centrepiece, I'm Not Lonely With Cricket, is a fifteen minute live guitar disintergration using liberal use of a delay pedal.

Well worth a listen.