Click to enlarge
|
The Navigator Closes His Eyes (CD)
"Navigator..." commences with "Unknown"; stellar keyboard and guitar drones punctuated with disembodied radio voices churning over an inexorable rhythm section for a dream-like introduction into Scott Grimm's latest collection of outsider acid rock. "Lance's Story" tells the tale of a shooting witnessed on acid, and is amiably narrated by Scott's partner Sassy against an instrumental backdrop of spiraling psychosis. It's as unsettling and memorable as Velvet Underground's "The Gift". Next is one of two longer pieces that form the core of the record. "The Crushing Weight" is just that - 12 minutes of vintage Texas guitar riffage alternating with Cramer's haunted vocals, with pauses in the track being characterized by an eerie silence that gives a clue to the hard-disc editing used to create some of the record's most effective moments of spatial dislocation. The guitars stretch out on the second half of the track into realms of pure tonal beauty. If the hairs don't stand up on the back of the neck on this one, may we respectfully suggest you check your pulse? The ambient "Elegy" acts as a breather before the record's second long-form piece "Little One". If the Dunlavy project didn't exist it would have been necessary to invent it so that this track could be born. The next step beyond space-rock, "Little One" is like a SF Hall of Fame short story scored by some of Scott and John's finest acoustic and electric guitar settings. A crew member and ship's navigator wait next to their ruined space-craft on some desolate planet waiting for the intensity of the solar day to cause their suits to fail, or maybe night will fall to give them another half cycle to contemplate their demise. "At last the suits are failing/the navigator closes his eyes/ I sit down on the ground/and tell him all my lies/you'll be all right/the night is coming soon..." Finally, the dramatic desert-rock piece "Mohawk Valley" brings it all back to earth in satisfying fashion. We think this is the finest Dunlavy release to date, and hope you agree.
Limited availability - ships immediately
|