4 out of 5

Label: Migration Media / Southern Lord

Produced by: Chris Common

Man, Ephemeral really highlights what was working with Pelican at the time of What We All Come to Need – an otherwise “all things for everybody” album that resulted in it feeling rather aimless – and also suggests the somewhat more stripped down direction the group would continue on with producer Chris Common on Forever Becoming. The two originals paired here show off the strengths still backboning the group’s sound, and adding a cover of an Earth track clarifies what my uneducated arse didn’t pick up back upon the group’s untitled debut: how much they’re indebted to those slow-core stoners of yore.

The title track, taken from ‘What We All…’ sincerely could pass for a Forever Becoming track when isolated from the glitzier elements of that release: it’s got a strong riff that doesn’t aim too high or try to be too chugga-chugga, and allows space for the bass and drums to set their presence beyond a metronome, building into truly satisfying guitar interplay towards the conclusion. Opener Embedding The Moss is even better, following almost the exact same pattern but driving at it a bit harder and faster, recalling earlier Hydra Head full-lengths. The cover of Geometry Of Murder then slows it down but adds the drone sludge, Common giving the track the warmth and depth some of Pelican’s other producers have, by my opinion, often muddled.

Really, only the fact that I mentioned the first two cuts following “the exact same pattern” is what’s suspect: Embedding the Moss and Ephemeral differentiate themselves in the details, but sound pretty similar at a first glance; it makes you wish we could’ve had one more track here to break it up a bit, as the songs battle each other for A-side positioning.