TIP OF THE TONGUE 11 JANUARY 2009
Vibracathedral Orchestra
The Momentary Aviary
Manhand #96
LP
£18.99
New limited edition vinyl LP from the post-Neil Campbell line-up of Vibracathedral Orchestra in a hand-numbered edition of 600 copies on Sunburned Hand Of The Man's own private press label. Recorded live in London and Cambridge on the 26th and 27th of August 2007, this one features the line-up of Michael Flower, Adam Davenport, John Godbert, Bridget Hayden and Keith Wood (Hush Arbors). Advance word on this album was pretty wild but it more than lives up to the hype, functioning as one of the all-time best Vibra sides and showcasing alla their advanced drone/psych strategies to dazzling effect. The sound is beautifully primitive, running from deformed wordless ragas that explode in arc after arc of heavy atonal stasis through the kind of amazing six string ostrich guitar work from Flower that would hallucinate whole freak out tracks assembled from nothing but Lou Reed's blistering avant-frat style circa European Son/Run Run Run/All Tomorrow's Parties. The fidelity gives it the same feel of raw devotional music that colours much of the back catalogues of The Skaters and Matthew Bower but this is more rock inflected and self-consciously 'classic' than either of those two, effectively re-formulating hypnotic guitar rock as *the* ticket to the other side. The drone pieces feel like waves of razor blades, the rockers like every freeform guitar fantasy you ever formulated and the whole thing is threaded with weird, inexplicable bird calls that gives the otherwise claustrophobic guitar environments a beautiful shot of light. An immaculate album, highly recommended. Welcome the fuck back.
