In memory of Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs (and occasional ARP 2600 wrangler)

DoS · 2023-06-07T17:43:32.344Z

Not just an outstanding blues guitarist, and while best known for this sort of thing:

He also went further out on occasion:

McPhee’s 1973 solo album, The Two Sides of Tony (TS) McPhee, had an A side of acoustic blues songs and a B side consisting entirely of The Hunt, an extraordinary 19-minute track performed entirely on an ARP 2600 synthesiser and a primitive Rhythm Ace drum machine, McPhee’s voice sharing space with passages of spoken word and moments that sound like musique concrète or Suicide.

the Guardian – 7 Jun 23

The Groundhogs’ Tony McPhee will remain a hero for the musically adventurous

Influencing Arctic Monkeys to Underworld, with music that spanned blues with John Lee Hooker to avant-garde synth experiments, the late musician was an astonishing British great

RIP at the tender age of 79.

bibenu · 2023-06-07T18:03:00.889Z

DoS:

best known for this sort of thing

Key album of my yoof. ‘Split part 2’ is still what I hear in my head when I mentally identify a minor 3rd interval.

DoS:

The Hunt, an extraordinary 19-minute track performed entirely on an ARP 2600 synthesiser and a primitive Rhythm Ace drum machine

I had no idea.

DoS · 2023-06-07T18:20:29.166Z

bibenu:

I had no idea.

Honestly, neither had I; Split was always the Groundhogs album I’d come back to.