Whereas our previous bus ride took us on a post-industrial journey through degraded landscapes familiar to all of us who dwell in the urban ruins of modernity, this American made bus takes us on a much more gentle tour of a landscape which nevertheless still sounds quite Eastern.
One of the drivers of this bus came through these parts a couple of years ago on a bus called Ulaan Markhor, so this style of driving may be familiar to you if you got on that bus for a bit.
Another result of somebody else’s year end post.
They actually released 2 albums, the second of which you are not allowed to buy digitally, although you can buy it on CD, which is a digital format, and they only allow you to hear one song from it… would love to know what the thinking is behind that.
Whereas the album Where I’ve Been is Places and What I’ve Seen is Things is available in a more easy to please Flipdog manner, and is very good. It ticks all the right boxes, most important of which is I don’t know how to describe it. Rural psychedelia? I’ve seen someone use that. Meandering? I think I’d prefer exploratory. Chilled? Yes. Though not always.
I love how after ‘Roll Away the Stones’, which is a kind of ‘typical’ jam band affair, we get a curveball in the shape of ‘We Cast Our Lot With the Waves’ which is very atmospheric and seems to feature wind very heavily (though maybe synths too), and has a very Parson Sound feel when they go Glyptotec. And each song has a different focus. The whole album is wonderfully diverse yet very coherent.
Also, they give good title.
Of course, the other album may be too, but I can only hear one piece from it and frankly it didn’t grab me. I bet it would work in the context of the rest of the album.
Soundbergs 