What a daunting task it is to sit down and review a six-track CD that runs well over an hour, especially when the first track alone tops 25 fucking minutes!? Whew! Well, this apparently folk inspired experimental duo (I wouldn't really use the term "folk" to describe much of this work at all) sees Ruhr Hunter's Chet Scott teaming up with James Woodhead and a slew of different instruments to create a number of lengthy, laidback sonic explorations on this, their debut release. Among the instrumentation utilized (and believe it or not this is not a complete list): Acoustic and electric guitars, bass, piano, cello, analog and digital organs, field recordings, theremin, sitar, Egyptian hand drums, Brazilian surdo drums, chimes, wooden flutes, harmonica, dulcimer, and vocal textures. That's quite a load, eh? After nearly four minutes of stringed instrumentation with minimal backing, opener "A Beautiful Head in 5ive Movements" drops back to lush, ethereal drones and ringing sounds with modest percussive textures in the distance - continuing as such until some similarly droning synths take over midway through and have an ominous yet progressive rock-ish sort of tone to 'em. Eventually guitars make a return and sound somewhat more improvisational to some degree, carrying things to their close. A similar sounding set of guitar layers opens "Mourning Dew of the Fallen Leaf", which follows a comparable path in its consistent repetition that eventually sinks into an ambient lull near the midway point, though the guitars never drop out so it tends to remain a hint more active throughout. The shortest track, though still seven minutes long, "Oceans Wreathed in Flame" is less musical, and builds around barely melodic low-end drones that cascade around with one another and offer a more effectively sinister and powerful atmosphere, and in fact concrete instrumentation never manifests itself here, making for my favorite track of the disc. "Lair of the Funeral Witch" blends soft, reverberated guitars and deep cello, eventually joined by wooden flutes and a subtle percussive throb for another fairly consistent piece that does indeed have a dirge-y quality to it; while "Caravan of Ghosts" takes a departure with the added instrumentation and sees quirky keyboards rest underneath the guitars. I'm not really into that at all, so it's almost a strange reprieve when the track switches over to an array of vocal drones and whispers that are oddly relaxing while creating an ominous sense of forewarning. Another long one (nearly 16 minutes) ends things out in "Drained Essence", which could perhaps be tagged as more "song oriented" in terms of structure (even if it is still abstract), again harnessing a repetitious style of dirge that carries along fairly well to close. The disc is housed in an oversized three-panel 6" x 6" digipack with the disc secured to the center panel on a foam mount. The color scheme used is quite minimal, and most of the artwork contains elemental icons and hippie-esque illustrations that look like they could've come from an early Genesis record something. What I'm regrettably trying to say is that, even though I'm usually quite fond of the visual aesthetic of Glass Throat's releases, I'm honestly not at all enamored with the way this one looks, and I actually find the outer packaging to be fairly dull and ineffective. The density of the illustrations and their undisturbed state (i.e. there's no text accompaniment over them) gives them a stronger appeal - even if they're still not my thing. In the end this is an enjoyable disc on most levels, but it plays out more like background music to me, and there are definitely aspects of the performances that don't really do much for me. For the most part it's the guitar work (or should I say "string work", though I believe most of the stringed instrumentation to which I'm referring stems from guitars) that's not all that interesting to me, not to mention it's just too one-sided throughout. With access to so many of those other instruments it would've been nice to hear a little more emphasis on some of that unusual stuff instead, because out of that impressive list, a decent amount of the inclusions aren't easily discernible at all. But beyond all of that, it's almost ironic that my favorite selection herein is the track in which no concrete instrumentation presents itself. I don't know, perhaps some of the rougher recording's characteristics seem a little lacking in terms of the stringed instruments as well, and more fitting of the ambient undercurrents and abstract experimental textures that accompany the more directly musical elements? It's hard to say, but perhaps this is more of an experiment than anything, in which case it will naturally take some time for these two to settle into what they do best and figure out where they want to take it. And while this set of songs doesn't floor me at all, that's not a ride I've be averse to taking.
[Glass Throat]
Running time - 75:49, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Oceans Wreathed in Flame, Caravan of Ghosts]
Glass Throat Recordings - http://www.glassthroatrecordings.com
