Scene: Saffron

Blendable cinematic textures in a simple, streamlined instrument.

Blendable cinematic textures in a simple, streamlined instrument.

David Lord is a six-string anomaly, a genuine diamond in the rough. Operating in the bubble of Wichita, Kansas has allowed him to pursue his idiosyncratic muse with impunity. Over time in his search and discovery missions with his chosen instrument, he has cultivated a wholly unique vocabulary that is devoid of any direct influences while showing kindred qualities to such guitar renegades Derek Bailey, Joe Morris, James “Blood” Ulmer, Dom Minasi and Ben Monder, none of whom Lord has checked out to any extent. What the 36-year-old guitarist presents here — his first recording under his own name after 15 releases under the name Francis Moss and with indie-rock bands The Wonder Revolution, Miki Moondrops and Solagget on his own Air House Records label — is so delightfully weird and wonderful, so refreshingly original that it stands as his own personal manifesto for an alternative six-string expression, just as fellow Midwesterner Pat Metheny presented 40 years ago on Bright Size Life.

Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream with this 11x CD,s box set gathering all 11 volumes in the classic Electric Psychedelic Sitar Headswirlers series. It's packed with Eastern-tinged rock, pop, and folk from the hippie heyday of the late '60s and early '70s, as well as the more recent psychedelic revival. Featuring over 200 tracks from acts from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as India, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Australia, and elsewhere, it comes complete with an 84-page full-color booklet offering background info, detailed biographies, full discographies, and rare photos, making it a truly essential trip back to psychedelia's incense-shrouded golden age.

The Eno brothers (Brian and Roger) will release a deluxe digital version of their collaborative LP Mixing Colours, which debuted this past March. Wednesday, they dropped the video for “Manganese.”

Some listeners might find the gimmick of “original jackets” sort of foolish, particularly when a) you cannot read the copy on the back if you are older than 15, and b) some of the CDs (taken, of course, from the original LPs) have as little as 40 minutes of music on them and only a couple have more than an hour. But the packaging is slim and nice (taking up the space of about 5 CDs), nostalgia sets in, the enclosed booklet reproduces the original essays (or excerpts from them) and includes track listings if not translations. And the low price for these 15 CDs (under $80.00) makes it very appealing from an entirely different angle.