3 out of 5

Label: VHF

Produced by: Vibracathedral Orchestra

I read several glowing reviews for this album.  After giving it a thorough ear-shakedown… I wasn’t expecting that.  So I went back for another round, but my opinion remains the same: that it’s definitely VCO, it’s definitely VHF, but it’s lacking a certain something.  The sort of chaotic drone that comprises a good chunk of the label’s output is present on ‘Dabbling,’ splashed with the hippyness that’s Vibra’s forte; some wonderfully jarring transitions, and straight-up jangly noisy jams occupy slivers and corners of this disc.  But – and I don’t know if this is actually how they always record – apparently this was cut straight to two-track in Michael Flowers’ kitchen, and while trying to consider exactly what I felt was missing, I do think a huge part of it is simply the production.  Tracks that start out punchy fade in and out of this focus – not organically, exactly, but more like the players just forgot they were playing their bit intensely a moment ago – and songs where all those unidentifiable extras would normally clatter things up beautifully, you can really only hear same of the major instruments, plucking out the rest of it only if you’re listening for it.  What this means is that ‘Dabbling’ ends up sounding… rather listenable.  No one’s going to mistake these tracks for top 40 hits anytime soon, but they could pass for folk jams for some of the noise-tolerant masses.

The group swells and meanders together amazingly.  It’s improvised, but VCO plays as a unit.  ‘Dabbling’ may actually be a good starting point for new listeners, a middleground that offers up shades of their different sides, and at variable song lengths ranging from 2 to 13 minutes, but the fairly flat recording shaves off an extra notch of the chaos I find so appealing about a lot of these bands.