Glowing Fuse

Combining the unlikely sounds of lo-fi indie rock (Guided By Voices, The Grifters, Of Montreal) with the ambitious forms found in progressive rock, Dw. Dunphy melds long form composition with a raw presence. Think Pink Floyd if fronted by Tom Petty, or Marillion after listening to too much Smog. Hailing from New Jersey, Dunphy's first releases came under the venerable cassette-only Secret Decoder collective. Originally calling himself No-Fi and recording on multiple boomboxes to simulate multitracking, his 'Everything Was Good Once' and 'Idiopera' challenged the listener and rewarded them with infectious homemade guitar pop. The home computer changed everything. Multitracking, digital recording, and sound manipulation suddenly was in everyone's grasp. Dunphy's recordings, now available in CD form, took a step up in quality. His 'Buckaroo', also from Secret Decoder, got a lot of attention and more than a few puzzled looks. The new toys in the box allowed for sonic explorations such as those of some of his favorite prog rock bands. Following 'Buckaroo', Dunphy founded his own Introverse label, subsequently releasing the discs 'The Look And Social Discomfort', 'Proud Sons Of The Suburbs', 'Gibberish' and a retrospective titled 'One Last Word'. He would return to Secret Decoder as part of Nightmare Variations, a group effort that took rock sounds, home recording invention and more than a little insanity and formed an avant-garde explosion of sound and fury, a self-proclaimed 'broken record'. (Nightmare Variations is also available through CD Baby!) Dunphy's latest offering, 'Glowing Fuse' is an EP and a taste of his latest concoction, the tantalizingly titled 'Pseudobiography'. Again, Floydian guitar flourishes meet sturm und drang power chords and introspective alt-folk, but this time it all falls together to tell a unified story in a song cycle you will not forget, featuring harmonies and hooks that will stay with you until you play it again.