Mark McGuire’s best performances gain their momentum from a feeling that they could go on forever. His style of looped guitar work focuses on one or two introduced melodies that eventually overlap and congeal, joined by harmonies that extend into a trancelike wave of rhythm. It’s a style that seems to be built entirely from new beginnings.
Between 2007 and 2010, McGuire solidified this technique with his prolific output as a solo artist and member of the influential drone outfit Emeralds. But after his ambitious, autobiographical breakthrough Living With Yourself, McGuire searched for different ways to expand his sound. He brought in drum loops and live percussion; he tried his hand at singing and eventually mimicked the feeling of a full band. The resulting records were intriguing plot twists but not necessarily satisfying developments in his catalog. McGuire’s music always suggested subtler means of evolution.
Ideas of Beginnings is a new introduction to McGuire and a much-welcomed return-to-form. Composed of eleven pieces mostly focused on one instrument, it’s the simplest, prettiest music McGuire has made since his limited-edition CD-R days, and it serves as a stunning showcase for his distinctive style. Opening with the brief “Beginner,” the album makes no claims to build upon his sound or engage in new ideas—and it’s all the better for it. There’s a lightness to McGuire’s playing that makes Ideas of Beginnings an easy and addictive listen, spending its 35 minutes illustrating how dynamic the sound of his unaccompanied guitar can be.
While solo guitar compositions are often noted for their loneliness and intensity, McGuire has never operated in the same plane as traditionalists like John Fahey. He’s always eschewed the patterns of rustic Americana for more tranquil motifs, a kind of new age music transcribed for six strings. There’s a reason why his most natural collaborators have been synth-based acts like Oneohtrix Point Never or his Emeralds bandmates as opposed to players in the New Weird America camp; his only true connection to folk music is his instrumentation.
The opening run of solo acoustic songs on Ideas of Beginnings are dazzling examples of McGuire’s mastery. “Skipping Stones” and “Smiling From Up North” are breezy and subtle, conjuring images of rushing water and shivering blades of grass. His focus on bright, open chords allows his melodic counterparts to fill the spaces with an emotional undercurrent, shifting the atmosphere of the songs like passing clouds, occasionally dimming or illuminating the landscapes. “Late Summer Early Evening” glides with a loose, galloping picking pattern. Like many songs in the album’s first half, it all goes down in under two minutes, as if McGuire hit record as soon as he started playing it without giving much thought to where it would lead. His excitement sustains the record, creating a sense of familiarity without feeling like a retread.
The album is sequenced neatly into distinctive movements to explore the territory McGuire has covered best, with the opening run of acoustic songs segueing into a series of lo-fi pieces and field recordings. These tracks are followed by two electric guitar compositions that serve as the album’s high points. “To Continue” finds McGuire’s delayed, chiming strings building to an almost orchestral sense of immersion, the space between each note filled with ghostly reverberations. In “Beginning of Winter,” he takes the opposite approach. His muted picking is packed as densely as possible to create a cozy, percussive effect.
The album closes with two droning pieces that wrap things up with a feeling of renewal, indicative of the spacier music on his other new release, the explorative Vision Upon Purpose. That album’s wild synth experiments suggest that the back-to-basics approach of Ideas of Beginnings won’t necessarily be a lasting mode for McGuire. Still, the album itself is enough cause for celebration. With Ideas of Beginnings, he’s refined ten years worth of growth into a record that feels as natural and refreshing as summer rain.
