As if to remind me that J. Mascis ain't the only guitar hero to have emerged in the post-punk era, this little silver disc arrived in the Magic Mailbox a coupla weeks ago. What with new Deep Reduction and "Medium Rare" and the Rhino Handmade Stalk-Forrest Group thang and the Dictators show 'n' all, it's taken me awhile to give it the attention it deserves, but now that we're here, it's definitely worth the wait. Mea culpa.

Nobody on Earth plays guitar like Andy Colquhoun. Well, maybe Wayne Kramer and Tony Fate (ex-Bellray, current Streetwalkin' Cheetah) are in the same league, but Andy's brand of over-the-top rock skronk and acid-blues is totally unique. As guitarists go, he's got a deep trick bag: a huge sound, saturated with fuzz and Echoplex; a monstrous whammy bar attack that skews his snaky, vibrato-laden blues lines and monolithic octaves; ringing harmonics; a deft touch accompanied by a fine melodic sensibility...almost a bent-head Jeff Beck (always a name to conjure with in the gtr circles I run in).

I first encountered Colquhoun on "The Deathray Tapes," Mick Farren's 1995 collaboration with electronic saxophone wizard Jack Lancaster, wherein his atmospheric accompaniment to Farren's apocalyptic spoken-word thang on "Gunfire In the Night" provided a tantalizing taste of his abilities. Since then, Andy's contributions (on the albums "Fragments of Broken Probes," "Eating Jello with a Heated Fork," "Have Left the Planet," and "Barbarian Princes") have made the latter-day Deviants the best version of that band ever. Supposedly Bomp's got another compilation of new-and-old Devies stuff slated for release later this year; hopefully it will feature more Colquhonismo.

For the time being, though, we have this, Andy's first solo album (on Japan's Captain Trips label, who deserve kudos for making virtually the entire Deviants/Farren catalog available again - Domo arigato, Matsutani-san), and it's great. Not an all-instrumental affair like you might think, although there are a few of those: a "Harlem Nocturne" the way Jeff Beck mighta reimagined it, the mysterioso "Mata Hari," a take on the Doors' "Riders On the Storm" that substitutes guitar for Manzarek's jazz-piano tinklings, the twisted surf ride "Zoomer," and the hauntingly cinematic "Walk of the Nervous Dude."

Colquhoun's a surprisingly good (and unsurprisingly Farren-esque) vocalist and lyricist. "Pick Up the Phone America!" and "Zero Zero" are vignettes of life in 21st century techno-America (like Farren, the Brit-born Colquhoun now resides in Los Angeles). Best toon on the album is "Lennon Song" (previously recorded live in Japan on "Barbarian Princes"), wherein Colquhoun manages to capture the sense of dread that marked John's best work ("Strawberry Fields," "I Am the Walrus," White Album, "Abbey Road," Plastic Ono Band) in a pastiche not unlike his Hendrixoid deconstruction of Dylan's "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" on "Have Left the Planet."

While this is mostly a SOLO effort in the true sense, with Andy producing all the sounds on guitar, bass, and sequencer, there are a coupla guest shots, too: ex-Motorhead and sometime Deviant "Philthy Animal" Taylor drums on four tracks; Farren vocalizes on "Alienza," a ripping rocker with lyrics that touch on some of his usual sci-fi obsessions; and original riddim Deviants Russ Hunter and Sandy Sanderson do what they do best, namely approximate the "Funhouse"-era Stooges, on 6 minutes and 13 seconds of "Runnin' Outa Road," which sounds kinda like a conglomeration of the first three songs from THE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME, with Colquhoun starting from Asheton and winding up in his own space.

Well worth searching out. I'll bet the recent Captain Trips release of Andy's late-seventies band Warsaw Pakt is, too.