RTZ and Luminous Night - Six Organs of Admittance (#10, 2009)

I'd always thought of Six Organs of Admittance as the solo thing from the guitarist on Comets On Fire's Blue Cathedral (2004), or maybe the non-Tom Carter, non-Deerhoof guy in Badgerlore. Looks like I got that backwards! Because this is definitely Ben Chasney's main gig. Whereas Comets On Fire is heavy psychedelic guitar rock and Badgerlore is quieter, interlaced guitar drone ambience, Six Organs' river runs both wide and deep. I can't find the article now, but I think someone once called it "Lamont Young meets Neil Young." Which is awesome.


"Anesthesia" from Luminous Night (2009)

RTZ is a 3xLP (2xCD) collection of rare, out-of-print and unreleased material - primarily from various split-albums with other acts. Five looong songs over 6 vinyl sides, mostly from the far end of this decade/century. Luminous Night is a regular-release single album of normal-length tunes, although it might actually be the more diverse sounding of the two. Everything is some kinda mix of mysticism, drone, Eastern influences, noise, Fahey-style acoustics, and resonant plainsong vocals.

The first song on the new-material album is "Actaeon's Fall (Against the Hounds)." When Chasney gets medieval on you, it's almost literal. Very beautiful, but closing in on Ren Faire flute 'n' lute territory. "Anesthesia" (embedded above) looks like the hit single Drag City's been banking on... It always strikes me as strange when an album of this type has a designated it song, but I'm about to engage in the same thing quite soon. All I've got is a partial live clip of "Bar-Nasha," but it doesn't convey the grooviness of the tabla, spice caravan exotica of the guitar and flute leads, or effectiveness of the faux-British goth vocals.

Just to give a flavor of the range, I made a combination video for the next two songs: "Cover Your Wounds with the Sky" (doomy ambience) and "Ursa Minor" (clean death-raga blues). That's a good sampling of the record. "The River of Heaven" is a slow and stately procession, with a very Eastern sounding viola from Eyvind Kang. And final track "Enemies Before the Light" goes from subdued ambient wavefields to oscillating squiggles and overdriven guitar squall, with some drone-ecstasy chanting.



"You Can Always See The Sun" from RTZ (2009)

Okay, here's the it song! Above are two videos (part 1 on top) for what seems to be the universal consensus as best track off the compendium album, if not the greatest Six Organs tune of all: "You Can Always See The Sun." And it really is top-notch, but also very representative of the whole record. If you'd like 5 more of that kind of thing, then RTZ is the bargain re-issue package for you. Also, someone's favorite half of Side A's suite: "Resurrection." That's the 2nd and 3rd sections (of five), "Bury Dreams" and "Resurrection Song."

I much prefer RTZ personally, but your mileage may vary depending on how well you handle 20-minute multi-sectional jams.

Official - sixorgans.com/
Myspace - myspace.com/sixorgans
Purchase - Drag City Records
iTunes - Six Organs of Admittance

Genre - Electro/Acoustic Freak-Folk Explorations
Location - West Coast, USA
Review - RTZ: No Ripcord
Luminous Night: Drowned in Sound

This is what I was looking for when I found Psychic Ills a few days back. Thanks, Biomusicosophy!

My salvage reconstruction of the triple-gatefold interior collage triptych... and all-together, magnifiable!!