THESE THINGS TAKE TIME

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.