- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
ARTiST... Jenks Miller
ALBUM.... approaching the invisible mountain
LABEL.... CDBABY
CAT.NUM.. n/a
GENRE.... Psychedelic
RiP.DATE. Mar-17-2009
SOURCE... CDDA
PLAYTIME. 30:05 min
SIZE..... 39,4 MB
ENCODER.. LAME v3.97 -V2 --vbr-new
TRACKS... 06
QUALiTY.. VBRkbps / 44.1kHz / Joint-Stereo
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
[01] babylon destroyer part i [05:51]
[02] babylon destroyer part ii [06:46]
[03] babylon destroyer part iii [05:07]
[04] babylon destroyer part iv [02:13]
[05] babylon destroyer part v [03:58]
[06] babylon destroyer part vi [06:10]
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
Jenks Miller's psychedelic/drone project, Horseback, produced an avant-garde
sleeper-hit with 2007's "Impale Golden Horn" (Burly Time Records/Holidays for
Quince Records). That record, which Aquarius Records' review staff tentatively
described as "the best drone record of the year" upon its release, boasted four
lengthy tracks, each one a vibrant, kaleidoscopic journey toward a manic,
inevitable nirvana. More melodic and accessible than most noise records and
noisier than most dream-pop records, Horseback's debut carved itself a niche
somewhere between Merzbow and Stars of the Lid, offering a refreshing sound to
fans across many sub-genres of psychedelic music. Horseback toured in the fall
of 2007 with Meisha/Arco Flute Foundation/New American Folk Hero visionary Mike
Tamburo, including a stop at the fourth-annual Arthur Magazine-curated Million
Tongues Festival in Chicago.
With an almost dialectical precision, Jenks Miller's "Approaching the Invisible
Mountain" turns Horseback's sound inside-out. Where guitars previously fuzzed
and whirred, they are clean; where instrumentation was meticulously balanced
against itself, playing is now searching, slowly unraveling, reveling in its
quiet momentum. Where "Impale Golden Horn" found inspiration in 20th-century
American avant-garde composers, "Approaching the Invisible Mountain" digs
further back into the annals of American music, generating a sound that is as
much derived from the blues-guitar tradition as it is from modern composition's
sense of (s)pace. Over the course of six solo-guitar improvisations, Miller
reinvents the process of tonal meditation that was present in Horseback's
debut.
"Approaching the Invisible Mountain" weaves a slow-motion spell with its
repetitive nocturnes. Improvised melodic themes crumble away as quickly as
they are conjured, reappearing across a droning expanse of suspended tones like
far-off phantoms. Solitary guitar strings buzz and reverberate, patiently
waiting for an echo before proceeding in their somnambulant circles. This is
blues-guitar for the doom generation: Junior Kimbrough in conversation with
late-era Earth, perhaps; a song-cycle lullaby for those of us who live to sleep
in the abyss.
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