IT'S GENERALLY A rule for most people that if it doesn't have a melody it's unapproachable and discomforting. But for some of us the certainty of formula is not always appealing. City of Refuge shows John Fahey in a different light altogether. Perhaps his most recent collaboration with avant-garde experimental musician Jim O'Rourke has yielded a new "urban" feel to his sound. Lots of static and noise - characteristics you don't normally attribute to Fahey. But buried in there somewhere, is a melody, however subtle, it exists as an undercurrent or at least suggested at. Opening up with "Fanfare" are buzzing overdriven distorted notes that drown out the noise from what sounds like motor hum of some sort. Slide enters at the end - in a near fatal collision. With the motor still humming on "The Mill Pond," notes from the head of the guitar are well placed; detuning it at the same time and at some point tuning it back to another frequency. He starts to chart familiar territory on "Chelsey Silver, Please Come Home" sliding up and down the neck and bare finger pickin' like the non-revivalist man he is. Nine minutes into "City of Refuge I" - the prelude sparse installments of hanging notes in free form style - comes that hidden melody - floating and coming down. "City of Refuge III" is like anything off his previous records; bluesy, emotional - eternal. The new formula works best on "Hope Slumbers Eternal." On the last song sampling STEREOLAB's 'Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements' Fahey reminds us that his associations with punks and alternative types - in and around the Salem Oregon area - has kept his music honest, fresh - a signpost.