The last few years have seen popular movements in the development ofimprovisational rock music, whether it's influenced by Anglo folk,experimental, or jazz music. There's another dimension, however, whichin my mind takes the music up a notch: the psychedelic/prog bit. Byincorporating the colorful drug-crazed lunacies of a few decades' past,Ghost have been pleasing very devoted international crowds for years,and it's no wonder, their songs are true songs and not just a bunch ofpeople farting around who can barely play their instruments. Hypnotic Underworldis easily one of 2004's first fantastic albums of the year, with thefamiliar genre-bending stretches of Ghost and shimmering over-the-topproduction by Taishi Takizawa. It opens with a stunning four-partmovement of "Hypnotic Underworld," and the slow building 13.5 minute"God Took a Picture of His Illness On This Ground." Here, a commandingbassline underscores saxophone, malleted drums, echoes and twitters ofsound effects, all contributing to an experience remeniscent of masterslike Taj Mahal Travelers and Magical Power Mako, siezing control of thesenses, disallowing much else to be paid attention to, other than themusic. Part two, "Escaped and Lost Down in Medina" picks up the pacewith a steady beat, a sea of other instruments (including prominentdrums, guitar, strings and piano), and a mesmerizing looped basslinethat doesn't change for the entire 7+ minutes. It acts as a perfectcrescendo on to the rest of the album as the buildup of sound andtension increases steadily through pretty much every cycle of the bassloop. The choral vocals of part three, "Aramaic Barbarous Dawn" ache tobe dragged out much longer than the 2+ minutes and scream of late 1960sacid-induced psychedelia before it quickly runs right into the22-second part four. From here on, the album picks up with variousstyles of rock, jazz, and sound textures, toying with pop tendenciesnearly all the time with instruments remeniscent of experimental pop ofyesteryear. Organ, harpsichord, tabla, sitar, and flute aren'tuncommonly found alongside squealy guitar solos and trancelike vocals.Whether the music conjures up images of babbling brooks and folkloreforests, staring endlessly into a clear starry night, the hellfire ofthe underworld, or completely dazed black light parties, the songs on Hypnotic Underworldare never weak or loosely strung along, and the album seemssurprisingly short at 70+ minutes. While I look forward to seeing themlive, I'd much rather be sitting on the grass outside rather than bestuck in a dirty rock club with an obnoxious cash machine jingling offin the distance.samples:
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