Jeff Pearce is one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time. Years ago, saying that would have been blasphemy. To compare anyone to
Robert Fripp, the acknowledged master and progenitor of the style, was unthinkable, let alone conscionable. Yet, in many ways
Pearce has surpassed
Fripp.
Bleed encompasses and acknowledges those ways.
Pearce wrote the music for this album after reading his diary from his teenage years. He has made no secret of the fact that these were troubled years for him. Thus, the compositions are dripping with all the angst and pain of inner-child demons.
Pearce has put his heart and soul right on the front lines. Deep listeners will feel the confusion, loneliness, and isolation of adolescence along with the pain and fear of rejection and abandonment.
Pearce has stated many times that he creates his atmospheres with only a guitar and a processor. He fibs, too. This masterpiece features all of his emotional courage and spiritual strength -- that is one of the ways in which he has surpassed
Fripp.
Pearce's compositional skills have also surpassed
Fripp's.
Pearce's willingness to let his audience into his heart and soul separates him from the rest of the crowd. In perhaps the strongest indicator of greatness, there are no discs even closely comparable to this masterwork. It rates a seven only because it has not had the test of time to be a nine. It is, quite simply, in a league of its own.