THESE THINGS TAKE TIME

'These Things Take Time' is a fascinating documentation of the band's live qualities, recorded 1999 in California. A set played without any break, 45 minutes lasting (unfortunately way too short) and divided in seven parts titled with the letters from A to G.

Backed by a compelling bass and drum work (Andey Stephens, Chris Van Huffel) you are invited to a show of the two band guitarists Mason Jones and Melynda Jackson predominantly. An intense hallucinatory space rock trip with continual ups and downs, completely improvised, sentimental as well as noisy with feedback guitars. Additionally you will detect some decent organ and theremin sweets.

This is really worked out with heart and mind. The band starts the set with a cool dreamy groove. The guitars are escalating by and by like starting the engines for a lift off into the sky. It needs some rounds to capture the excellent interaction of Jones and Jackson. After some time being on orbit they are gliding relaxed spacey for a while.

This is always alternating with dangerous parts escalating to heavy guitar walls, sometimes even near to post-rock alike drones. But after escaping from the danger they always manage to get back to this wonderful spacey flow. And the whole band is still able to give more. Jazzy bass lines appear and a drum work which varies more and more until finally the last songs are gliding into a weird krautrocked mood.

Space rock at its best! A stunning performance by SUBARACHNOID SPACE which is highly recommended to fans of this music style who don't fear some crashing droning guitars appearing here and there. This courage will be rewarded.

This album do not take time to appreciate

Live or studio album, this does not really matter for an instrumental improvisational band such as SUBARACHNOID SPACE. Nor do the songs titles either, as their music is more about depicting a particular atmosphere. As you may have guessed, all featured tracks on "These Things Take Time" are improvisations different from those of the studio releases. Recorded live in Silicon Valley on KFJC radio in 1999, the performance is in fact a single continuous 45 minutes piece, cut in seven parts. Each part reflects a particular ambiance.

I don't think describing each "letter" of this record is worth, you just need to know that most things you're looking for in the modern dark psychedelia genre are here: gorgeous throbbing bass lines, distorted spacey guitars, rhythm changes, mystical passages, post-rock incursions and even a few gothic moments. The atmospheres are varied and the quality is rather constant. There are a few lengthy passages in the second half though, which is more ambient.

Anyway, "These Things Take Time" is a very good album from SUBARACHNOID SPACE and a good entry point to discover the band. Recommended to space rock, dark music or even post-rock lovers.

I would rate this live album right there with "Also Rising" and "The Red Veil" my two favourite studio albums by this California band. This particular recording was recorded live in studio on December 11, 1999 at an FM radio station and we get a 45 minute ride broken down into seven tracks for the release. A four piece with bass, drums and two guitarists who also add organ, air organ, theremin and effects. There is a lot of layers to the music it's quite surprising they're doing this live. We get some Post-Rock, Psychedelia and often quite a bit of noise with the distorted guitars, air organ and effects but also very spacey at times.

They basically title the songs A-G and three are quite long at over 9 minutes and my favourite is the last of those "E". It starts spacey with some inventive guitar expressions eventually joining in followed by deep sounds. I think it's the contrasts because when it gets heavy it's just so awesome sounding. That opener has this sound like we're on a fairly slow moving train and the air organ adds a suspense to the sound but it will eventually step aside. Distorted guitar before 4 minutes and the other guitar kicks in too. Back to that earlier sound as themes are repeated.

Post-Rock styled guitars on "B" for the first couple of minutes then they echo before lighting it up later. "D" is the longest piece at 10 1/2 minutes and another favourite. Trippy with atmosphere and catchy too before distortion at 5 minutes signals the crazy part of this trip to the end where it dissolves into distortion. Love the bass and drumming on "F" the shortest one at 2 minutes and also how haunting and experimental the closer "G" is to end this album.

I recommend this one highly if your into adventerous instrumental music.