Reviewed!: Six Organs of Admittance, Sunburned Circle, Mattress

Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter From the Ash (Drag City)

Ben Chasny remains one of the best live performers I have ever laid eyes upon, and his frantic yet Zen-like playing is something beyond mesmerizing--it's a vacuum that ferociously sucks you in and keeps you spinning until the very last note.

Containing that push/pull in recorded form has always been a bit of a struggle for Chasny. He succeeded with the free-jazz/avant-psych wunderkind School of the Flower and came close to recapturing the dark western ragas of old during The Sun Awakens. Either album, or other Chasny classics such as Dark Noontide match the power and beauty of his strongest Six Organs album to date, Shelter From the Ash.

The mix of burnt out rock, fragile folk, and brutal freak outs amidst a who's who of skronk and pop idols will engulf even the most devoted and prepared. Chasny rips through a host of free form music throughout Shelter From the Ash, displaying his prowess with each. Chasny has always led with a quite strength, but for once he speaks loud and clear. With the help of Matt Sweeney and skronk queen Elisa Ambrogio, Chasny pours his heart out during "Strangled Road," as thick lyrics combine with a delicate melody. "Coming to Get You," is brutally stark dark rock that borders on Sunn O)))/Earth terrain. Shelter From the Ash is filled out with much of the beloved guitar wizardry and raga-inspired sounds familiar to the Six Organs faithful.

Chasny refuses to look back to go forward, and his head-full-of-steam progression has yielded an album so unbelievably forward thinking that I wait with childish anticipation at what Chasny has in store for us next go-around. Until such a time, I am certain that I'll continue to rely on Shelter From the Ash to produce gleeful rings within my ears.

Release Date: November 20th

Highlights: The entire album

Sounds like: Wooden Wand, Sun City Girls/Sir Richard Bishop, Om, Peter Walker


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Sunburned Circle - The Blaze Game (Conspiracy Records)

Whether expanding their musical horizons through numerous self-contained releases or via collaborations once unimaginable (Kieran Hebden), no band has strung together as many successes in a calendar year as Sunburned [Hand of the Man].

Somewhere, something must go wrong--but it won't happen within the confines of The Blaze Game, the latest from the bizarre melodymakers. It just so happens that this go-round features Finnish prog-jazzists Circle. The marriage of unearthly freak-outs and ghostly resonance found throughout The Blaze Game is enough to stir the most apathetic soul. Rarely do the worlds of jazz and folk blend to create such a haunting result. The band's two distinct sounds blend to form a brand of backwoods psychedelia that is a murky mélange of light and dark: light provided by Circle's infinitely bright jams; dark provided by Sunburned's twisted screams and anguished cries.

Release Date: Available Now

Highlights: "Heinavelho" "Yksi Hirvi, Miljoona Metsastajaa"

Sounds like: Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict"


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Mattress - In Your Pocket (Malt Duck)

A clash between mangled soul and electro-pop, Mattress' latest EP is an experiment in sounds both rudimentary and complicated. The music is as basic as it gets as it riffs on the prototypical blues and soul formula, but the interjection of bleeding heart vocals, spastic electro-breaks and hypnotic beats reestablish blues as a malleable art, especially in an age when instruments and electronics are readily available to any DIY musician. Mattress has a slow climb to reach the pinnacle of electronic domination, but In Your Pocket is a giant step towards reaching musical heights yet explored.

Release Date: Available Now

Highlights: "Have You Heard?"

Sounds like: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Tree Wave, Tron