Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sunken - Eye Electric Organ, Brain Electric Nerve


The opening track is almost 30 minutes, broken into three parts: Sounding, Salt, and Seacow. The first part is a beautiful drone with what sounds like an organ alternating between two chords and electric guitar with high end feedback. But it's soft and warm, not harsh or piercing. Infinitely soaring, like an albatross with the call of an eagle. Salt sheds the feedback and fades the organ into a single chord in the background. Skittery electronics replace the guitar and out comes the more traditional organ playing, louder than any of the other layers below it, dominating your attention. Slowly, the background noises raise their heads, competing with the organ, wanting to be noticed. It all melts together while some low bass rumbling pushes it's way through everything else. It's so hypnotic, one could make the argument that it's closing in on "psychedelic". Almost everything falls away and starts anew with Seacow. It opens with high end organ barely audible in the back, electronic clicks and squeaks, and sparse echoing guitar plucks. The guitar and shrill electronics build, rendering the organ almost nonexistent and some scraping/creaking noises make the foundation that could be made of tapes. Everything fades, leaving you with the guitar and the single relentless organ. Complete and utter beauty.

The other two tracks, Tackle and Staunch, make up the final 15 minutes. Tackle is the most abrasive of the bunch. Staunch's first half is very guitar driven and the second follows similar melodies with an organ. It could probably be called a pop song if run through a different filter.

Obviously, the organ is what drives this album. Throughout it all, the organ is there, mesmerizing you with it's perseverance. Sometimes it's hiding behind the layers, waiting for it's turn and at other times it's in command, weighing down on everything else. This is a fantastic album, though mostly due to the first half hour. But nevertheless, this is highly recommended.

1 comment:

seanh said...

great review, I really enjoyed the record as well. Pumice and Anthony Milton can do no wrong.

I was able to see Stefan Neville very recently performing as Pumice here in NYC. Maybe someday, the pair will tour together.