acid folk review page : Six Organs Of Admittance

Holy Mountain Six Organs of Admittance (US,1998;re 2003)**°

Those who read my pages know that I like raga like guitar, especially when it's played with skills and inspiration. I like already what this group did on "Dust & Chimes" so I was very curious to hear the reissue of their first album. The album is very consistent in its ideas but it is not build upon a basic cleare structured composition. Instead the music often conjures the impression of a forest walk, with guitar improvisations (raga-like, bluesy, fingerpicking, ..) with various textured use of sounds and additional instruments, experimental, sometimes ritually meditative droning, always in an accompanying way, and with sounds that come-from-nature. The bonus tracks from an additional 8' fit perfect with the rest of the album. Very enjoyable, from start to end. The second track, "Sum of all heaven" is the only track sung with male/female vocals, with a strange distorted bass string drone and acoustic guitar, very experimental folk and hippie like.

All items with short sound files : http://www.midheaven.com/artists/six.organs.of.admittance.html

Other review of this (first) item : http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/900

& http://www.fakejazz.com/reviews/2003/sixorgans4.shtml & http://www.tonevendor.com/item/8448

For this occasion I will also review the earlier release I tried before :

Holy Mountain Six Organs of Admittance : Dust & Chimes (US,2000)****

While on the first album basically every element was part of creating the mood, here this album is closer to the skills of improvising itself, in a semi-eastern form of compositional structures. Some songs are psych folk, a bit like early Tyranausaures Rex (-but without the weirdness in voice-), with acoustic guitar and handpercussion. Also the raga-like guitar is "Fahey-like" skilful. A few tracks, like "Black needle rhymes" have additional chimes, or cello and droning bells. A classic.

Review of D&C : http://www.tonevendor.com/item/10514

Review of all items : http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/six.organs.of.admittance.html

& http://www.aquariusrecords.org/cat/s11.html & http://www.psychedelic-music.net/pmdb/db3/db_band.php4?id=228

Strange AttractorsSix Organs of Admittance : The Manifestation (rec.1999,2004)****

The first 22’17” track, "The Manifestation" (file 1, file 2) was released before in 2000 as a one sided 12” limited vinyl edition. It contains a beautiful trippy mostly acoustic psychedelic journey with tabla, guitars, voices, (Kushner, J.J.Stratford & B.Chasney) and near the end some Ashra-Temple like keyboards, (by Utrillo Kushner), with a controlled hippieness, like a spiritual shamanistic trance. The track ends with a Robbie Basho-like guitar improvisation. The complete piece was supposed to be an ode to the sun.

As a second track it includes a rather dada idea based upon more esoteric visions on “the music of the spheres” and the harmonics between the planets, with several notes about these in the jewelcase. With info like regular distances and associative middle notes for all planets from Mercury to Jupiter (with the order A-F-(with no specific tone for earth except that this is associated with the voice of man)-D-C-B), based upon some Egyptian and Greek systems as collected by some alchemical astronomers (?) The piece itself seems to be a collection/collage of different recordings, with, dadaistic-ironically, as fundamental “trance leading drone”, the recording of the needle on the empty B-side of the same 12’, resulting in crackles. Here Ben Chasny improvises with his guitar in the earlier mentioned old musical keys. On the “earth part” David Tibet recites, a spoken word piece, with after that Ben Chasney continuing with his guitar (and some dulcimer) the journey into space. Very special.

Info : http://www.strange-attractors.com/catalog/saah026.html

Review : http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/1515

Holy Mountain

Six Organs Of Admittance : For Octavio Paz (US,re.2003,re.2004)**°'

Because this album focuses more on Ben Chasney's guitar style, I preferred to include a review on this page. The album was first released on LP with 500 only pressed.

Octavio Paz was the 1990 Nobel Prize winner from Mexico, “for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.”

This sets the mood : integrity, nylon and steel string finger-picking tracks which are over before one notices. First slightly like a Tibetan meditative impression, on “Fire on Rain”, then starting slightly with a withdrawn melancholy, like on “When you finally return” and “Memory, memory, memory”, building up the moods on "They Fixed The Broken Windmill Today", and “Elk River”, all tracks which are quickly over before one notices. Then the real guitarist even comes more to the front. "They Fixed The Broken Windmill Today" is a long raga-like improvisation like I love to hear Ben Chasney play, with relaxed feel and intention. After “Rain on Fire” as another meditative Tibetan bell introduction, there comes the masterpiece itself as an almost 21 minute track, called "The Acceptance Of Absolute Negation". These Peter Walker-like bluesy raga like evolutions emblossom Ben’s talent with a fantastic fresh play of fast and quiet evolutions of finger-picking developments. Brilliant ! After some seconds of silence we hear another hidden track, with still all the calmness of silence in it, evolving out of something impressionistic... Musically it has something experimental. A small vibrating noise participates, coincidentally, in this. Rewarding.

Info : http://www.holymountain.com/six.htm

& http://www.sixorgansofadmittance.com/

& http://www.midheaven.com/artists/six.organs.of.admittance.html

& http://www.mentaltelemetry.com/artists/sixorgans/sixorgans.htm

Discography : http://www.dragcity.com/bands/sixorgans.html

Other reviews : http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/sixorgans_octavio.html

& http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/s/six-organs-of-admittance/for-octavio-paz.shtml

Drag City

Six Organs of Admittance : School of the flower (US,2005)****

For this release Ben Chasney, acoustic and amplified guitars, voice and organ, of Six Organs of Admittance has the help of Chris Corsano, on drums, percussion and organ. The first seconds draws you into a krautrock-like wall of percussion and amplified drone. Behind that wall the garden has its peace. We hear first some acoustic guitar songs, like “Eight Cognition” with hushed vocals, and “All you left”. Like always, Ben Chasney shows his guitar talent modestly -just listen to the beginning of “Words for two”, a track which also receives additional percussion with some additional background textures and experimental amplified guitar drones, and some dreamy guitar repetitions. “Saint Cloud” is build up in a similar way. Also “Procession of Cherry Blossom spirits home” builds up with such amplified echoed guitars mixed with acoustic guitar, and hushed vocals. The longest (13'31") track, “School of the Flower” builds up with two and then three layers of loop guitar patterns, with beautiful resonating guitar noises. Then it adds on top of this another layer of great, advanced jazz-like percussion, building up tension, adding magnificent improvised freaky electric guitar too. Great to hear him do this ! Then I recognise a song originating from the great (hippie) psych-folk album by Gary Higgins, called 'Red Hash', called “Thicker than a smokey”. Last track, "Lisbon" is a quiet acoustic guitar closer.

Six Organs of Admittance succeeds in building up here consistent improvisation-like ideas, which are structured and well developed enough to make this release enjoyable for repeated listens. New was the successful electrified guitar on the long track, something which I wouldn't mind hearing again on future releases.

Homepage : http://sixorgansofadmittance.com/

Info from label : http://www.dragcity.com/bands/sixorgans.html

Review with audio : http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=16251&ljb=1&sType=list&sTrk=9675,9676,9677&sQType=music

Other reviews : http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/sixorgans_flower.html

& http://www.splendidezine.com/review.html?reviewid=11032828539723

& http://www.digitalisindustries.com/foxyd/sixorgans_flower.html

& http://sgmag.com/av/sooa_sitf/

& http://www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk/album_reviews_text_archive6.htm#Bookmark%206

Interview : http://www.foxydigitalis.com/foxyd/chasny1.html

& http://www.poptones.co.uk/interviews/qod_ben_chasny.htm

Review of Gary Higgins album on http://www.lysergia.com/AcidArchives/lamaArchiveH.htm

Drag City Six Organs Of Admittance : The Sun awakens (US,2005)***'

Six Organs Of Admittance with this release is no longer built as much upon acoustic guitar ideas, but have evolved to a more independent band sound. Project leader Ben Chasney is now playing more different guitars and several additional other instruments. He has moved away one step from dependency on the acoustic. There is added a droning ambient sound with improvisational meditative vocals on the last track, “River of Transfiguration", which might recall vaguely Popul Vuh, in a more simplified version of independent rock droning track which still is a bit long for its wealth of ideas (almost 24 minutes). But also the second track “Bless your Blood”, with calm pulses and layers of guitars with some piano chords, gives once more the idea of some inspiration from Popol Vuh, but then taken over to an indierock area. Other mentioned inspirations on the press notes were the droney performance artist Hermann Nitsch, and the one chord-psych from 'Hapshash and the Coloured Coat'. There are just a few Americana guitar touches left over in the new cooking pot, that are now part of a menu that added its own form of a krautrock influence to some of the songs and instrumentals (-which is most psychedelic on "Attar"-). This is a new direction which I think still is successful.

Audio : "Black Wall"(or here), "Wolves Pup", "Bless Your Blood", "The Desert Is A Circle", "Attar", "River Of Transfiguration" (or here)

Info : http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=LDS3122

Label page : http://www.dragcity.com/bands/sixorgans.html

Homepage : http://www.sixorgansofadmittance.com/

Drag City Six Organs Of Admittance : Luminous Night -LP/CD- (US,2008)***°

I have listened a couple of times to this new album, the first I have heard from the band in years. Although I have the impression the focus is much more on moods that create certain solo lead songs (the band basically is Ben Chasny’s project) compared to earlier stuff, with some way-outs of instrumental loops, the effect is in between nicely textured and descriptively moody moments and slightly psychedelic extensions. The songs stay a bit in the background, and relatively simple loop-like melodic themes on guitar are greatly arranged with melodic attachments, textures and improvisations by several guest musicians. This includes clear harmonies now and then (like on the opener), but also nicely organised harmonies in distortion (with slower piano echoing on top, all on track 4), some tabla rhythms (Tor Dietrichson)… The accents with flute improvisations (Hans Tueber), electric guitar (especially with creative distortion on the last track) and the exotic flavoured, overtone-sensitive viola are all worth giving an extra mention to.

Homepage : http://www.sixorgans.com/ & with audio : http://www.myspace.com/sixorgans

Articles : http://hangout.altsounds.com/news/108587-six-organs-of-admittance-set-to-release-luminous-night.html

& http://www.idiomag.com/peek/90688/luminous#/90688/1/

Other review : http://ventvox.com/?p=6699