ANDRE LAFOSSE: Disruption Theory

Andre LaFosse

Disruption Theory

© 1999 Altruist Music (634479299520)

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A sonic gene-splice of lead guitar, jungle beats, and fragmented post-ambient textures.

tracks

1 You Cannot Come Back
2 Walking Stick
3 Signify
4 In Time
5 The Reason Why
6 Disruption Theory

notes

In a world full of musical clones, the DNA of guitarist and producer Andre LaFosse runs rampant with rare strains of cross-breeding and gene-splicing.

His debut album, Disruption Theory, charts a collision course between formalized instrumental musicianship and street-level DJ aesthetics, going deep inside the relationship between "live" and "sampled" music to uncover connections both familiar and bizarre.

Far from a contrived collage of generic beats underneath conventional instrumental playing, Disruption Theory functions as a natural extension of LaFosse's long-term musical eclecticism.

His musical background is both wide-ranging and in-depth; the scope of his experience encompasses live performance, studio production, sound engineering, and formal musical study in everything from classical to jazz to rock to avante-garde, and countless points between.

As a result, Disruption Theory is an album that eludes easy categorization, even as a quick examination reveals elements of modern dance music, compositional approaches from both Western and non-Western traditions, and an array of guitar-oriented styles.

But in the interest of oversimplifying matters and describing it in a basic sense, Disruption Theory could be said to function as a hybrid of rock and jungle.

There are obvious elements of drum & bass all over the album; most of the songs are built around jungle-derived rhythms, and the genre's distinctively chopped-up, nonlinear logic informs the material on several levels.

But Disruption Theory is also a guitar album; aside from his rhythm section programming (and a Mellotron sample on the title track), LaFosse produced every sound on the album with an electric guitar.

The textures that adorn the album cover a vast spectrum, from bare-boned traditional guitar tones to angular post-ambient sonics utterly unrecognizable from their six-string origins.

Of course, all of this comes at a point in time when simply putting guitar lines over drum & bass rhythms is hardly an innovative gesture in itself.

Disruption Theory paints its picture in wide, complex strokes: beyond simply placing contrasting musical colors of performance and programming next to each other, the album functions as a palette that blends those hues together until an altogether different shade emerges.

The result is music that both embraces and violates convention in equal measure.

Cut-and-paste digital textures and dancefloor sensibilities are infiltrated by traces of song-like compositional structure, while melodic and harmonic conventions are filtered and chopped through a non-linear post-DJ mentality.

Disruption Theory unfolds like a map of possible paths: filled with landmarks of familiar musical territory, but charting a course that bypasses any conventional routes, to arrive at an altogether different destination.

reviews

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  • Top notch guitar record
    author: Paul Simpson

    An amazing tour de force of drum and bass rhythms and innovative instrumental guitar work. Of Andre's albums, this is the most 'guitar-y' of the two, and there's plenty here for fans of the likes of Vai and Satriani.

  • Fantastic electronic/heavy beat guitar album
    author: Foovius Foo

    Great CD -- I've had it since it came out and it's still in heavy rotation. This is a terrific beat-oriented, well-recorded and produced album of distorted guitar and electronics. Sadly, much better than his long-awaited follow-up recording. Get this album immediately, though. I can't really compare it to others well--perhaps an IDM approach to Belew-esque guitar might do.

  • author: CD Baby

    A sonic gene-splice of lead guitar, jungle beats, and fragmented post-ambient textures.

  • Behold, The Birth Of A Genre!
    author: Yogi

    Labels are the bane of any musician, since every artist out there tends to see the music they've made as unique; it's a rare occasion when that's truly the case. Andre LaFosse's record is one of those albums, blowing the doors off the perceptions of what is "allowed" on a "guitar album". Oh, it's a guitar record to be sure, but somehow that description seems to belittle the compositions. These songs are journeys, really, careening wildly back and forth from pensive beauty to truly frightening intensity. Almost every sound on the album is generated by Andre's guitar, backed by insistent and stuttering jungle-style rhythms. Is there a lot to chew on? Can you expect to be overwhelmed? Well, yes. But isn't that how great music should be?

  • author: 20th Century Guitar Magazine, February 2001

    A spectacular collision of manifold musical thoughts and patterns, Disruption Theory introduces the talents of L.A.-based guitarist Andre LaFosse. Laced with a complex pattern of rock-solid drum and bass rhythms, Disruption Theory integrates an expansive spectrum of guitar sounds and visions drawing from jazz, rock, avant-garde, ambient and World Beat. With its myriad maze of sinewy jungle rhythms and otherworldly musical shadings, Disruption Theory is also very much a guitar album. In fact, LaFosse goes to great lengths to point out that all sounds on the album, aside from drum programming and the occasional Mellotron, are all created with an electric guitar. To call Disruption Theory a futuristic album would be an understatement. Using electric guitars to chart an exploratory trek into the musical twilight zone, LaFosse breaks down musical borders, and in doing so he has come up with a high-tech instrumental guitar album that is clearly daring and certainly different. (Reviewed by Robert Silverstein)

  • author: Expose' Magazine #20 (october 2000)

    Here is a guitarist whose playing has an assuredly original kind of American twang to it. With the exception of some drum machine work, all the sounds Andre LaFosse uses to produce his music are made by guitar. If the thought of drum machine turns you off however read on anyway: it actually fits right into his scheme of music making and the results are formiddible. Besides, the way the machine is employed is such that no human could ever perform the patterns he uses. LaFosse gives you six lengthy instrumental portraits on this CD, and does a fine job of imprinting his own musical personality, rather than skipping around to various odd styles. His six-stringer is pumped up with energy, creating a firestorm of pyrotechnics and burning sounds, but with a sensitivity to weirdness and experimentation where need be. The relentless surge and brisk pace of most of these tunes are such that only a drum machine could ever keep up. I like how he settles into muscular grooves with a twisted sort of bending and slurring of tones, at times bathed in distortion, at others emulating a softer, Chapman Stick texture. You may notice a dearth of name-dropping in this review and that is because I can't really compare LaFosse to anyone I know of. Perhaps Hendrix could be pointed to but only as an iconic influence. He seems to have roots in blues, jazz, 70's rock and probably a bit of classical and experimental music as well. (Classical guitar training is likely). And he utilizes it all to create an album that is usually made by people who can only capture "atmospheres" (since they can't play guitar well). "Chops" are often referred to disparagingly by people who work in experimental idioms, but Disruption Theory reveals the difference it makes when a player knows what he is doing. Here is one that deserves the title "unique." (Reviewed by Mike Ezzo)

  • None For You Dear Indie Spotlight, Oct. 2000
    author: Richard Pike/none For You Dear

    Working in various capacities with guitar legend Steve Vai for several years now, my PO box is often crammed full of CDs and tapes from aspiring guitarists from all around the world, eager to display their talents and share their music. Ranging from fully produced CDs rivaling major releases to homemade cassettes with handwritten labels, some are stunningly good, and of course many are still early in their development and a little before their time. In more than five years, exactly one such recording has made me stop whatever I was doing and just stare in awe and disbelief at my speakers, simply absorbing its sounds and shapes as they tumble forward, and loving every minute of it, until the end of the last song. That record was Andre LaFosse's Disruption Theory. Fearlessly colorful and inventive, it stirs together elements of rock, jazz, electronica and jungle rhythms into a thoroughly listenable package that gets more interesting with every new listen. When I found out that every sound on the disc, other than the rhythm programming and a sole Mellotron sample, was created on an electric guitar, and indeed that every sound was created by Andre alone, I was again awestruck. I'd just been handed one of the greatest guitar records I've ever heard, and it's recorded by someone in his 20s, living right here in Los Angeles. Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce you to Andre LaFosse. Remember the name. Buy his record. Thank me later.

  • An advanced guitar clinic, with equal parts technique, technology and taste.
    author: Alternative Press Magazine (september 2000)

    Using every effects processor and MIDI voice known to man, plus some very crisp, techno-derived drum programming, Andre LaFosse conducts an advanced clinic in electric guitar technique and studio technology on Disruption Theory. And since he also has an abundance of chops and taste, what might have been shallow studio self-indulgence turns out to be a substantial and satisfying experience. Most of the six pieces adopt recognizable styles, from a supercharged bent-note blues with a strong Hendrix flavor, to boogie, swamp country and one heavily MIDI'd piece of Tangerine Dream-like space rock. LaFosse's pieces are primarily riff-oriented; actual hummable melodies are scarce. But much can be done with a good riff, and LaFosse moves back and forth between three or four foreground/background riffs in each piece, using variations of the verse-bridge-chorus format, sounding like a supergroup with three flash guitarists -- one playing nasty fuzz licks, another working the whammy bar, a third soaring like Carlos Santana's musical double. On the title track, LaFosse drop-kicks his restraint and does the rock-star/guitar-god thing, running up and down the fretboard and just flat-out wailing. And he's damn good at that, too. For electric guitar enthusiasts everywhere, this one's essential. (Reviewed by Bill Tilland)

  • author: Iowa City Press-citizen

    The six pieces on Disruption Theory run from seven to ten minutes each and, except for the programmed rhythm sections (and one Mellotron sample on the title cut), every sound you hear on this high-energy effort hails from LaFosse's otherworldly electric guitar. Bits of jazz/rock fusion, electronica, industrial and techno leap in and out of the picture, but it's muscular, roaring, high-tech wizardry with a distinct rock flair which dominates the overall sound. Not for every taste, to be sure, but there's a furious creativity and inventiveness at work here which allows LaFosse to more than hold his own with the usual Guitar Player magazine ax-hero. (Reviewed by Jim Musser)

  • author: Mojo Magazine (homebrew Column), May 2000

    Andre LaFosse is an astonishing guitarist of a very different ilk. On Disruption Theory he lets fly with some incredibly fast, weird and funky playing over drum'n'bass backing tracks. Fripp and Zappa, step aside. (Reviewed by Joe Cushley)

  • author: Fuse Online

    Guitarist Andre LaFosse's debut cd should appeal to fans of Zappa/Mike Keneally and more generally, fans of interesting mixes of guitar, progressive music and even electronica. The title track at almost 11 minutes runs the gamut and is an interesting collage of sounds. (Review by David Dorkin)

  • Modern Guitar Flavors Jungle Rhythms
    author: Guitar Nine Records: The Undiscovered (april/may 2000)

    Straddling genres including jungle, experimental, rock and progressive, California guitarist Andre LaFosse has released Disruption Theory, which features six tracks of predominantly long-form compositions and improvisations. Selections such as "In Time" and "Signify" involve principles of classical right-hand guitar technique translated to an electric guitar, to produce contrapuntal lines and muting that let the instrument speak in a very precise and cleanly articulated manner. Disruption Theory's title track offers improvised 16th-notes over a modulating 8-bar progression at 180 BPM, as well as a "looping solo" recorded live in one pass with an Oberheim Echoplex. LaFosse pushes the envelope on his debut CD, drawing on many styles to deliver a signature sound.

  • Unique Experimental Guitar
    author: Outburn Magazine #12 (may 2000)

    When one thinks of a guitar album, one thinks of characters like Steve Vai or Joe Satriani jamming away, trying to show prowess and one-ups-manship with the abiliy to play more notes than the other guy. None of these come close to describing what is heard here. Six tracks making up a full-length album with drum and percussion backgrounds, and the rest is purely guitar created. Disruption Theory is one of the best guitar albums I've ever heard, because it was written as an album. This is not a collection of intros to songs wrapped around a five to ten minute solo -- this is a written album, made with movements, meter, arrangement, and an idea in mind. Also, LaFosse obviously spends a lot of time creating the different guitar based sounds, some of which you could easily mistake for other instruments. His choices of styles and selections of tones and content herald from house, to drum & bass, to some forms of jazz, and things one can expect to hear on any number of Anime soundtracks. (Reviewed by Mike Learned)

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