Using just his six-string and a set of effect pedals, Tokyo-based guitarist Dustin Wong creates blissful symphonies of chirps and cascading arpeggios, shot through with searing leads and throbbing bass pulses. At times they recall the exuberant psychedelia of Animal Collective or the heady experiments of 1970s German synth innovators Manuel Göttsching and Cluster; at others they sound more like a duel between thumb pianos, or Malian guitarist Ali Farka Touré in a hall of mirrors.
Wong is hardly the first solo guitar player to multiply himself with delays and loop pedals, but while many of his contemporaries use those tools to summon heavy drones or repetitive minimalist pieces, his music is far more intricate and playful. "Create a loop, cook breakfast, drink coffee, have it playing," he says, gently mocking the typical approach of his peers. "I feel like there's a lot more potential than that."
Over the course of a trilogy of solo albums, starting with 2010's "Infinite Love," Wong has investigated the possibilities afforded by his hardware — the complexity of which is frequently overstated. "A lot of people talk about my pedals, and they say, 'He had 20 pedals!' " he says via a Skype chat, and I can picture him rolling his eyes at the other end of the line. "Actually it's only eight. It's like: okay, I have these eight pedals, and how can I use those to their fullest potential."
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