3 out of 5

Produced by: Bill Kellum

Label: VHF

It’s possible I’m just not “hearing” this properly, but this is an incredibly subdued release from a band that normally creates a bit more noise.  It’s definitely not quiet enough to count as ambient, but the songs for the most part – stay far away from settling into a defined feeling; recorded from (seemingly) miles away from the mics, the two main multi-part compositions hover about in an unconcerned dreamstate for 5 to 10 minutes per each section, links between the sections of the first piece (‘Left in an Airport Giftshop’) even downright disruptive.  Vocals drift in and out throughout, which is another mark that sets this apart from most VHF releases; the tracks on Feng Shui are, at points, almost like traditional songs (as opposed to the label’s general psych / outré output) just druggedly paced and mastered so far down that the weirdo elements can get lost.  If we’re taking the album title as meaningful, perhaps this was the band’s purposeful attempt to spread their sound out to “maximize” the aural space in some way.  If so, its not a failure: The album achieves a trance-like haze without resorting to anything directly drone or minimal, and it’s almost fascinatingly flat, like a flying saucer attack album without the layers of reverb.  But that also means there’s not much ebb and flow here: Just a constant burble of slow-to-arrive noises, although the latter multi-parter (Ascending Copper Mountain) does kick off with a much more direct bang than the 20-minute warm-up of airport.

I have no idea what this guy was hearing. Maybe one day this album will click and I’ll cry out on frustration that I damned my review history with such an unenlightened opinion.  Indeed, even as I reread this review and relisten to the album, it opens up, and the split structure feels like one long slow climb (‘waiting’ and ‘ascension’ in the track names; coincidence?), but the even-keeled mix and fairly open-ended construction are still nonetheless something of a challenge to the listener.