AIRS ABOVE YOUR STATION

If the SMASHING PUMPKINS had decided to make "Siamese Dream" a Psychedelic album, it may have sounded like this record. Thankyou Avestin for bringing this band to my attention.

The first song "Steve's Basement" opens with about 3 minutes of spacey sounds before we begin to hear the guitar come in ever so quietly. After 5 minutes it's anything but quiet ! The sheer power of a wall of distortion and guitars brings to mind the "Siamese Dream" album I spoke of earlier. My first listen of this record reminded me of some of the heavier Post-Rock bands but after many listens I have to agree that this is truly Psychedelic music with some outbursts of raw power. "Semaphore" has a sound that reminds me of the intro of THE SMITHS song "How Soon Is Now". There are lots of spacey sounds with drums as the heaviness arrives. I like the guitar solo over the top of the soundscape. Almost 5 minutes in the pace speeds up and it sounds great ! "Rhode Island Freakout" you could say is more of a traditional song. We hear some brief vocals for the first time as this song does rock out pretty good.

"Schedule For Using Pillows & Beanbags" opens with a drum and guitar melody that is replaced by spacey sounds. The song does get more energetic and heavy before it's over. "I Think I Blew It" has these cosmic sounds that build and it sounds incredible. It's like drifting in waves of pleasure. Is there such a thing as a progasm ? "Your Lights Are (out or) Burning Badly" features gently played guitar with the sounds of deep space in the background. Drums come in later followed by guitar as the sound gets louder. "Waves Of Second Guessing" reminds me of PORCUPINE TREE around the "Sky Moves Sideways" era. A very spacey tune until out of nowhere comes this aggressive guitar solo with drums. Nice. "I Think I Blew It (again)" is really part 2 of "I Think I Blew It" or an extension of it. Simply put we hear beautiful, spacey waves of sound gently touching our minds.

Yes I like this a lot. It combines the spacey, psychedelic music I like with the heaviness that I also really enjoy. 4 stars.

Studio album number three from the coolest band in the Pacific Northwest is arguably their best, especially for new listeners open to a creative blend of Eno-inspired ambient nuance and grungy Post Rock noise. This is a group capable of making beautiful music when necessary, but their default position is Loud.

That dynamic contrast is exploited right from the start, in the almost ten-minute album opener "Steve's Basement": a powerful Sludge Rock anthem building a furious head of fuzzed-out guitar steam from a single throbbing bass line and a sympathetic drone. The relative subtlety and restraint of the even longer "Schedule For Using Pillows & Beanbags" (the hilarious song titles are a Kinski signature) likewise yields to an imminent Krautrock frenzy, cued by a drummer with enough discipline and precision to make the ghost of Klaus Dinger turn green with envy.

The only vocals on the album are a few barely audible spoken words from bass player Lucy Atkinson, in the aptly-named punk thrash "Rhode Island Freakout". It's hard to believe the same band (and on the same album) was also responsible for the meditative calm of "I Think I Blew It", and its bookend epilogue "I Think I Blew It (Again)": two matching postcards from Another Green World.

Progressive Rock it ain't, by any definition. But the album still rocks, in a transcendent fashion: often heavy, occasionally not, and with a subversive authority only achieved by veteran rebels.