4 out of 5

Label: Olfactory Records

Produced by: Bobb Bruno (recorded by)

Hey, y’all heard that Polar Goldie Cats album?  Then you’ve heard Distant Spices.  To PGC fans, of course, this isn’t a bad thing: the band, from the outset, has had this incredibly unique… like, acoustic drone format: plodding, marching drums, guitar and bass (think a less-themed Double U), that shifts oh-so-subtly over 4 or 5 minute tracks until a few precious final seconds of outburst.  You can identify a PGC track from any of their discs pretty much immediately.  But the patience of the compositions has yielded riches for those of us who aren’t turned away from a seeming simplicity that might bore more expectant listeners, and there are perceptible changes from album to album.  ‘Distant Spices,’ for example, has some fascinating segues where tracks will pause and then resume as something closer to traditional song structure – the title track, ‘Ice Fox’ – before sliding back into drone.  The recording, as usual, is crisp and warm so as to capture this in all its glory and give the production that odd blend of playing-in-your-living-room / your-living-room-is-a-cave vibe at which PGC excels; and the mix (by Kerry Woods) is at tolerable levels that place the drums slightly higher than usual, making this one of the more balanced and pleasant sounding discs from the group’s career.  There are highlights: opener Journey Supply is an epic build-up; relatively raucous Raccoon is a Polar Goldie Cats rocker, the distortion a blistering standout from the mostly acoustic presentation elsewhere, and The Ballad of Big John is a pleasant lullaby, that unfortunately leads the disc into a somewhat disappointing conclusion, as the track fades into a killing nigh-silence for like ten seconds, at least, before the completely standard Last Litter / Rincy Wa Doko closes Distant Spices out.

Still, it’s been a while since a PGC release, and I’m always happy to discover the group hasn’t disappeared.  By dropping albums infrequently, it’s okay if they’re a little more hit or miss as the overall quality of the band’s output has remained solidly enjoyable over the years.