the new om record has arrived. much like every other om record i hear you mutter. but no! this bugger positively explodes with technicolour mayhem. ahh not really, but there is a creeping expansion of their distinctly repeato-minimal hypnopsyche sound. variations on a theme? kindof almost for sure. their whole career seemed to be building inexorably towards pilgrimage and it’s perfectly pitched tectonic balance of the ludicrous and sagacious, power and poise. they sounded eons old yet utterly modern.
then hakius jumped the transcendental ship last year and i figured that it’d be the end of om, or the start of om. well not quite either.
the more things change, the bass and chants remain the same. words as mantra, chosen as much for cadence as resonance as nuance: descends supine grace of the luminant, attunes to access light of celestial form. etcetera. it’s still om. there’s just slightly more. tambura or sitarry drone twang, flute (though not ron burgundy style jazz flute), dub, strings not attached to a downtuned bass, hand claps, piano and even *gasp* changes in tempo have schneaked in.
plus nobody records drums quite like albini. and newbie emil amos of grails unfame aquits himself rather well, at times positively big gay flamboyant, by om standards at least. not that he’s bashing skins like john bonham…
there’s a transitional feel to god is good (the last two tracks just aren’t given time to stretch their legs and lungs), and in the same way sunn o))) did on monoliths i suspect, nay hope, that om will fill, seal, address, stamp and push a similar meditative envelope on the next record.
