4 out of 5

Label: Road Cone

Produced by: Steven Wray Lobdell

A little more long-winded than their debut, Hochenkeit’s six track followup is again a wonderful collection of Middle Eastern-, folk-touched instrumentals, shifting between variations on a theme while bringing in even more direct rock and jazz influences, urging the band from Pelt territory into Jackie-O-esque wanderings.  The more concise moments remain the best, with opener Seen swirling into intensity off the back of some clanging, clicking, percussion, and Give Them to the Ants almost, like funky.  When the group takes a deep breath into 7 to 9 minute explorations, the results are soothing, and pastoral; lacking, perhaps, in the slight mysterious feeling that made the previous album rather engaging, but an evolution on the group’s sound and one that makes the different perspectives offered by the tracks notable: there’s no doubt when a song has ended and you’ve gone to the next, which isn’t always the case with bands playing in this vein.

The last two tracks – 400 Boys and Turn Out The Sun – somewhat repeat the same trick of slow building to feedback drenched, rumbling strumming and strings and whatever else, each song 14 minutes a piece, but the payoff for each one is impressive.

While one of the Hochenkeiters – Jeff Fuccillo – would go on to run his own label with a bevy of notable avant garde artists, it’s a shame we didn’t see how Hochenkeit would have evolved.  400 boys might not have been as overall grabbing as their debut, but it showed some intriguing signs of the group finding their own identity.