John Frusciante picked his favorite Bandcamp releases and
shared them with us all!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20
years, you’re undoubtedly aware of John Frusciante’s guitar
chops. His soaring riffs and triumphant solos were pivotal
in elevating the Red Hot Chili Peppers to international
stardom and creative triumph, acting as the cerebral
complement to Flea’s funky bass and Anthony Kiedis’
nonsensical raps. There’s another, woefully-unexplored side
to Frusciante aside from his work with the Peppers and as a
solo artist, though—for the past 13 years, he’s been
moonlighting as the electronic auteur Trickfinger,
assembling rave music, ambient, acid, UK garage and more
into warped, homespun soundscapes. His third album under
that alias, She Smiles Because She Presses The Button,
arrived last month on the Acid Test sub-label Avenue 66. It
marks the culmination of his journey thus far, his
meticulous attention to detail and melody reinterpreted from
a digitized standpoint.
Frusciante’s introduction to electronic music predates his
career arc as a rocker; he first experienced it at age 6,
when he heard Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” on the radio. “I
was very into New Wave starting when I was 9, and Eno and
stuff, but Rave music really started to take off in ’92 when
I was beginning a five-year drug run,” Frusciante says. “I
had cut myself off from the world and wasn’t paying
attention. When I got clean in 1997, I suddenly felt very
drawn to anything with synths, drum machines, and breaks,
and I started buying as many different kinds of recent
electronic music as I could. Some standout discoveries over
that next few years were Aphex Twin (Classics), 808 State
(Newbuild), Komakino (Energy Trancemission), The Railway
Raver (Drop Acid Not Bombs), Autechre (Tri Repetae), The
Prodigy (Experience), Squarepusher (Feed Me Weird Things),
and C.J. Bolland (The 4th Sign).” Though he’s technically
been making electronic music since 1998, it took nearly
another ten years for his endeavors to bear fruit. “It
wasn’t until 2007, when the first Trickfinger stuff was
made, that I found the right gear for me, and was dead set
on the path of being my own engineer.”
Continue to read and find out which are his favorite
Bandcamp releases!
