Paths of Ignition

A Berkeley, California guitar virtuoso initially inspired by John Fahey (check out 2006’s Berkeley Guitar), Matt Baldwin branches out on his 2008 debut by opening with an expansive cover of “Weissensee” by Krautrock luminaries Neu! — this amazingly reworked version is almost four minutes longer than the 1972 original and is gussied up with steel-string guitar arpeggios, slide-guitar swells, and a buzzing electric six-string slathered in psychedelic reverb. Paths of Ignition still nods to Takoma Records’ heyday as evidenced by Baldwin’s own “Jealous Woman,” but he’s also having fun reinventing some unpredictably influential parts of his record collection, like a droning, bending, feedback-laden rendition of Judas Priest’s “Winter” where open-tuned leads birth proggy melodies and Baldwin’s singing is mixed somewhat distantly to sound like another instrument. The soothing “Eulogy & Dark” rubs organic wooden guitar-picking against mellow electric wah-wah notes that braid with a humming sitar at the end. “Rainbow” is another instrumental that closes with an epic 14-plus minutes of innovative and experimental folk.