True to its name, the title track to this album does indeed begin in otherworldly-sounding fashion. About a minute in, the tone changes, and it begins to sound like something you might hear in a commune of Nepalese monks — not quite otherworldly, but definitely not something you’re apt to hear at Madison Square Garden. You know, the percussions are beginning to grow on me. Maybe it took about three minutes for me to leave behind my western world consciousness, and sensitize myself to the rhythms of the Far East, or perhaps eastern Jupiter.
“Black is the Colour” is a strange and engaging cover of a song with a rich history, perhaps originating from Scotland, and then finding its own tradition in the Appalachian Mountains.
“Grind to the Slaves” is a rather foreboding track that raises the prospect of “living in an open grave.” In the latter part, there is this really exotic, high-pitched solo. I can’t even tell for sure if it’s a guitar, but it’s haunting as all get-out, like something one might hear on a train ride to oblivion.
The track “Grok Otok” makes me feel like I’m some 19th-century sailor visiting Shanghai’s most notorious opium den. Should I smoke, or inject?
“Mystic Rituals” is a track where the primeval rhythms of percussion take the place of any verbal communication. In fact, this could be said for much of the album.
With such lyrics as “and the universe is the hereafter,” it seems the track “Stardust+Energy” might be anticipating life after human extinction.
About halfway through “The One True Devil,” there’s a ghostly guitar solo that lingers somewhere between grunge and apocalyptic.
A track called “Witch Doctor” makes quite a bit of sense here, as this album, with its spooky spirituality, is, to quite an extent, the sonic equivalent to witch-medicine.
One might conjecture that the lyrics to “Broken Robots” are a grim prophecy of human enslavement to technological supremacy:
“Just in case you forgot / we’re ruled by some broken robots / who more often than not / oppose all freedom of thought.”
In the latter part of this track, there’s this great percussion improv. It almost sounds messianic, as if the performers anticipate the arrival of some world-altering character or event.
Some speculate that, in future centuries, robots and carbon-based entities will become, in many ways, indistinguishable. Didges Christ Superdrum will be ready: http://www.reverbnation.com/didgeschristsuperdrum
Ray Cavanaugh – owleyesgatsby@yahoo.com
