For decades, and across an extensive discography, Six Organs Of Admittance / Ben Chasny have split the difference between delicate folk and brooding drone, usually by placing them next to each other in successive tracks. Along the way, Chasny has dipped into many musical currents, deploying middle eastern sounds, psychedelic builds, more and less extreme drones, gossamer vocals, and a long list of collaborators.
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
MNRK Heavy It’s been an incredible six years since High On Fire’s last album, Electric Messiah and its evil Santa cover. Since then, High On Fire has tasted Grammy success, Matt Pike posited as the logical successor to Lemmy Kilminster’s title of biggest badass in rock … and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With his long-term interest in Nibiru, David Icke and fringe theories in general, Pike fell […]
Source Of Denial — a simple, apropos punning album name — hits the air with “Kudistro”, frantic organic drumming and blaring electronics that suggest an adrenaline junkie rave-up or the klaxon wails of public emergency.
Cyclic Law A full thousand years after its inception, Gregorian plainchant had an unexpected pop cultural moment in the 90s. Enigma — producer Michael Cretu — mixed chant, dance beats, and whispery sensuality to garner unexpected chart success. Soon, recordings of Gregorian liturgy enjoyed a spike in sales. Enterprising monks got in on the act, recording arrangements of songs like The Yardbirds‘ “Still I’m Sad” and REM‘s “Losing […]
Group Mind The idea of music based on the elements immediately makes one think of mimetic, programmatic music. Air, water and fire have real-life sounds we can expect to hear reflected, but should the music try to imitate them? And what does earth sound like?