MONYPENY, DEREK - The Hand As Dealt

"How many records are truly prescient? How many are after living through 2020? Even though Derek Monypeny's The Hand As Dealt was recorded before arriving at such a chaotic point, the album is of this time. The tracks are a song cycle of creative tension that crescendos with "The Tamarisk," but never allows for the chaos to overtake the compositions. Conceived deep in the Mojave Desert, these masterfully executed solo guitar and shahi baaja recordings cover a wide sonic and emotional gamut, passing through pastoral psychedelia, severe shred-freak outs, hazy Egyptian string sections, and Riley-esque pulsing hypnosis. It is a sprawling, immersive homage to the spiritual music of the elders -- Don Cherry, Alice Coltrane, Umm Kulthum (and her orchestra), and Terry Riley. The fifth release from Twenty One Eighty Two Recording Company, The Hand As Dealt is the first solo record for Monypeny in seven years. His involvement with 2182 extends another concentric circle out from the label's Mount Meru series, which was developed by Alan Bishop, David Oliphant, Joel Robinson and Monypeny's bandmate Richard Bishop. Derek Monypeny is a Joshua Tree, California-based guitarist/multi-instrumentalist who has played in the bands ALTO!, Oaxacan, and Sir Richard Bishop's Freak Of Araby Ensemble. Don't Bring Me Down, Bruce, his album of solo oud recordings released in 2011, received international acclaim. He has performed and toured with artists such as Bill Orcutt, Jozef van Wissem, Eva Agulia, Arrington de Dionyso, and many others. "Derek, using tastefully deployed effects and small and patient gestures, digs deep into those thin places where all kinds of inner space visions can flourish." --Larry Dolman, Blastitude "Monypeny... makes a stake for a conception of the parameters of variously translated formal/cultural/biological folk modes as the keys to the goddamn kingdom that is every bit as persuasive as Sun City Girls at their most alien." --David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue" - Twenty One Eighty Two Recording Company.