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Andre LaFosse — Entry Level: An Introduction to Andre LaFosse
(7d Media no#, 2025, DL)

Andre LaFosse — Then Again
(7d Media no#, 2025, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-05-12

Entry Level: An Introduction to Andre LaFosse Cover artThen Again Cover art

Going all the way back to the year 2000, my colleague encountered Disruption Theory, the first album by guitarist Andre LaFosse, where LaFosse was described as an experimental “guitarist whose playing has an assuredly original kind of American twang to it.” And that is certainly true, though it might give you the impression that you’re going to find surf-rock or Country-inflected playing, neither of which plays much of a role. LaFosse utilized the full range of what a guitar can do, including a number of things I’ve never heard anyone else do, and a twangy Stratocaster-like tone is part of his tone palette, along with a mind-boggling array of other sounds. In the years since Disruption Theory, LaFosse has put out a further dozen or so releases, leading up to his most recent, Then Again, which comes out under the 7d Media banner. As an added bonus, 7d has also made LaFosse’s entire back catalog available via Bandcamp. Entry Level is a calling card of sorts, presenting fourteen tracks from thirteen different albums, including both the debut and Then Again. This sampler presents a stunning array of different sounds — as the years have advanced, LaFosse has kept up with the latest in technology for both his looping and his effects, sometimes accompanied by a drum machine. From the beginning, he has not been content to use loops in any kind of standard way, applying effects to the already-recorded loops to mangle their sound, using them as more inputs for his processing. But the result is not just chaos, as he keeps the rhythmic pulse clipping along energetically, developing a funky feel that is quite unexpected in such experimental music. Credits are not very detailed, and there’s such a wide variety of sounds that it seems that other instruments besides guitar could be involved — or not, given the possibilities of effects pedals. Guitar junkies will find a lot to scratch their heads over, since LaFosse is so far outside the standards of the instrument. There’s no shredding, no extended chords, and no elaborate finger picking, at least no so you’d notice. It’s like the weirdest Adrian Belew taken even further out. Several of the tracks are live in studio solo guitar takes without overdubs, though you’d never know. Seriously, you just need to check this out.

Then Again presents the current state of LaFosse’s art, recorded live with a guitar and a Hologram Microcosm looper, which has a variety of effects built into it; half of the tracks also use a Glou-Glou Loupé, another boutique looper, and LaFosse uses them in ways that are quite creative and unusual, building wild rhythmic constructions of glitchy complexity. If you’ve heard other albums of solo guitar with looping, don’t think you’ve heard anything like this. Andre LaFosse has earned a place of note among the world’s experimental guitarists, and carved out a unique niche of his own.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Andre LaFosse

More info
http://andrelafosse7d.bandcamp.com/album/then-again
http://andrelafosse7d.bandcamp.com/album/entry-level-an-introduction-to-andre-lafosse

 

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