|
 |
Six
Shelter From The Ash
By Jesse Jarnow
There are plenty of acts dabbling noise swathes over finger-picked purdiness these days — see Devendra Banhart or Espers or MV & EE with the Bummer Road — but none quite has the collective voice of Ben Chasny and his Six Organs of Admittance. On Shelter from the Ash, his tenth album in ten years under the Six Organs moniker, Chasny's music is far greater than the sum of its parts. Everywhere, he goes reaching unabashedly for the transcendental, often merely by combining simple moving elements of acoustic and electric guitars: the latter doubling the former and expanded by vibraphone ("Goddess Atonement") or in a nearly literal dialogue ("Strangled Road").
Despite these promises of inner peace, Shelter from the Ash rarely contains anything more than modest and kinda comforting moods, perfect space jams for dreary autumn/winter days, melodies perfunctory, but unapologetically so. None of the parts are complicated, but Chasny's voice sounds great no matter what he does, which also includes singing (see the gentle "Jade Like Wine"). Likewise, when other voices appear — such as Tim Green's cosmic/ambient bowed cymbals on the latter — it's all in perfect accord with Chasny. Who needs hooks when you've got vibe?
|
