NOYES, ROB & JOSEPH ALLRED - Avoidance Language

"2022 repress. "There have been some very cool guitar duo LPs over the years -- Bert Jansch & John Renbourn's Bert & John, Danny Kalb & Stefan Grossman's Crosscurrents, Jody Harris & Robert Quine's Escape, Charalambides' Joy Shapes, Bill Orcutt & Michael Morley's Electric Guitar Duets, any comp of Kansas Joe McCoy & Memphis Minnie, etc. -- but there has never been one quite like Avoidance Language. It is a wild-eyed classic from start to finish. Ostensibly a meeting between two guitarists lurking around the Boston area (although Rob has since moved to Japan), Joseph's mastery of other instruments (harmonium and banjo) affords the pair a wider range of sounds than some of their precedents. But they also eschew vocals here, so that kinda balances things out. At least in my book. The album's four tracks display brilliance and variety in spades. 'Feet of Clay and a Crown of Stars' is a two guitar conversation, with notes initially slurring and sliding against each o