ALSO RISING

After five studio albums consisting of nothing but improvs SUBARACHNOID SPACE finally release a record full of structured songs called "Also Rising". And this is really good as is the next studio album "The Red Veil" another 4 star album like this one in my opinion. They are a four piece with two guitarists, bassist and drummer with the one guitarist adding air organ and we get some hammond on that second tune. These guys and girl are from San Francisco forming in1995 and my one experience with one of their improv albums was terrible, not a fan at all. The music here has a definite post rock flavour and this band is known for being a psychedelic rock band for the most part.

This 2003 release begins with "The Harsh facts Of Life" at 10 minutes and my favourite. Air organ to start then drums followed by drums and guitar. This just sounds so cool then I'm asking what are they doing after 3 minutes as we get a slight change with this pulsating wall of sound sort of with that guitar melody and drums continuing. It changes after 5minutes and it's still heavy. They proceed to slow it down and it's dark. Check out the inventive guitar around 8 minutes in. A spacey ending to this great opener.

I really like the next one "Deep End" as well with the picked guitar and slow beats along with the upfront bass. Nice. Sounds like a bowed instrument over top. Love that bass though as they trip along here. Post rock guitar to the fore then they strip it back to the picked guitar and drums again. How about the intensity 4 minutes in when it kicks back in. When it settles back after 5 minutes I can breathe again. Atmosphere galore to end it. "Burn Shot"is a high energy piece for almost 4 1/2 minutes and I like that they change the guitars up a few times on this one. Crazy stuff late. My second favourite has to be "Tigris". Chaos to start followed by distortion and it doesn't start to move until the drums arrive after 1 1/2 minutes. Listen to that guitar before 2 1/2 minutes. So good. This track is the longest at almost 11 minutes.

While I think the first two studio albums blow away their early improv phase their live albums are the ones to get, even better. A review of one of those live records coming in a couple of months Lord willing.