Pelt were formed by guitarists Mike Gangloff and Skip James Connell in 1993 in Richmond (Virginia). With Patrick Best and Jack Rose (Uglyhead's rhythm section), the quartet recorded the single Hugeness/ Frequency=Distribution (Radioactive Rat, 1994) and the limited-edition double album Brown Cyclopedia (Radioactive Rat, 1995 - VHF, 1997). The album is a cross between Royal Trux's Twin Infinitive and Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation, except with much more studio gimmickry. After the introduction of Anchored, inspired by Velvet Underground's mind-warping raga, the atmosphere gets wildly psychedelic with the 10-minute aberration Green Flower, a free-form piece that runs the gamut from shamanic chant to wall of distortion. Poor recording and amateurish vocals detract from a concept More cacophonous dadaism of the John Cage/Edgar Varese school (Subversion Of A Cat's Eye, 4th In Paradise) and experimental pieces a` la Ummagumma-era Pink Floyd (Phantom Tick) the album dives into the 10-minute middle-eastern mass Absolution, torn apart by delirious tape manipulation and orgies of guitar dissonance. Almighty continues the religious theme with another shamanic invocation accompanied by loud strumming. The obscure clouds of the 9-minute Who Is The Third crown this monumental tribute to the altered states of the mind.
Unlike other pursuers of the lysergic gospel, Pelt rarely sacrifice chaos for the sake of melody (Total Denigration is the only "acid ballad"). They stick to noise as the medium and as the end. Each track eventually loses its identity and leaves only sonic debris behind. The album is played with virtually no percussions: guitars are more than enough to raise this kind of hell.Burning/Filament/Rockets (Econogold, 1996) expanded the format to free-form instrumentals that recall Bitch Magnet and Slint without the rhythmic complexity. Ein Platz An Der Sonne sounds like an explicit homage to Einsturzende Neubaten.The quartet's ambitions led to the seven lengthy improvisations/meditations of Max Meadows (VHF, 1997). Bordering on raga-rock's suites (Samsara), acid-rock's jams (Sunken), industrial noise (Abcdelancey), hypnotic tribal folk (Hippy War Machine), and droning new age music (Outside Listening), Pelt's instrumentals merged mind-bending psychedelic distortions and mind-opening world instrumentation; Faust and Bardo Pond, Red Krayola and Roy Montgomery, Third Ear Band and Dead C, but also Cecil Taylor and Tony Conrad.Snake to Snake (Klang Industries) was recorded live in 1995 and 1996.Excesses of minimalism and free-jazz feed the three epic tracks of Techeod (VHF, 1998). The 14-minute New Delhi Blues opens with a rhythm-less invocation by keyboards tuned like horns. After five minutes, tablas impose order on the chaotic wailing of the instruments. At nine minutes, the tablas stop and music slowly dissolves. The 27-minute juggernaut Big Walker Mountain starts from this shapeless vortex of unformed sounds and unfolds a massive attack of drones. When they fade out, the primal chaos is restored. Then, again, the cacophony increases, and then, again, it collapses. The dissonance gets louder and harsher, but the piece ends on a surprisingly gentle note. The 17-minute Mu Mesons is the most dissonant and droning of the three, a gigantic cosmic radiation that builds up to a terrifying climax. All in all, the longer piece is the disappointing one. The other two are intriguing experiments in bridging psychedelic music, jazz music and electronic music. Multi-instrumentalist Rose has become the center of gravity and Mike Gangloff's alter ego (Amy Shea on fiddle).Jack Rose also recorded Via St Louis (Drunken Fish, 1998) with Charalambides' Jason Bill.Empty Bell Ringing In The Sky (VHF, 1999) is the most overly psychedelic of their works, its four lengthy tracks owing quite a bit to Amon Duul's and Grateful Dead's most indulgent moments. If the 10-minute Ghosts Are Never Forgiven and the 17-minute Ghost Galaxies are quite trivial attempts at resurrecting cosmic/raga-rock, the title track's sprawling 50-minute performance stands as their Dead Star.On their two-disc tour de force Ayahuasca (VHF, 2001), dedicated to the late John Fahey, Pelt is pushing the envelope of their post-psychedelic and post-ambient technique. The mission of bridging John Fahey, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar and LaMonte Young is ambitious but also rewarding. The 16-minute raga that opens the album, True Vine, is a slow-motion parade of Tibetan drones, industrial dissonance, cavernous ringing performed on sawing bowed guitar and exotic instruments. Free-form phrases float chased by melodic fragments and piercing drones, emancipated from tempos and structure. The general tone is more hallucinated than ecstatic.
Harsher droning sounds, spread over a vast spectrum of frequencies, demolish any pretense of meditation/contemplation along the 26-minute musical calvary of Deer Head Apparition. The wall of sound vibrates like a volcano that is about to erupt and roars menacing like a Gordon Mumma piece. We are almost in Dead C territory. Bear Head Apparition is gentler and sparser, but also quite radical cacophony.
The Dream Of Leaping Sharks (21 minutes) is the most oneiric piece, steeped in deep tones, high-pitched sitar-like wails, and distorted snippets of melodies.
The core of the album, the tour de force withing the tour de force, is the three-part A Raga Called John. The 12-minute long first part overlaps dreamy picking a` la John Fahey over a steady crackling guitar noise. The rhythm accelerates into a sort of square dance, but then dies out and what remains is a shower of galactic drones. The 25-minute second part is an effervescent cacophony that creates a thick texture of Buddhist and raga themes. It is probably the most intense and radical piece on the album. The brief third part returns to the quiet, atmospheric picking of the first part, albeit wrapped in sitar-like drones.
Surprisingly, the album also includes two traditional Appalachian songs (The Cuckoo and Deep Sunny South) that are given a noble treatment without sacrificing too much of the original. They display the amazing finger-picking of Jack Rose, a guitar virtuoso for the new century.Keyhole (Eclipse, 2001) contains improvisations by Pelt, Keenan Lawler and Eric Clark performed in an empty grain silo.Pearls From The River (VHF, 2003), Pelt's first truly "studio" recording (not a single note was recorded live), contains three long instrumental acoustic tracks. The eight-minute droning minimalism of Up the North Fork (for banjo, baritone banjo and cello) works as an overture to set the mood of intense concentration. The 20-minute ecstatic raga of Pearls From the River is balanced by the 15-minute brooding raga of Road to Catawba, but neither ever sets off for the skies. This is very earthly, humane and intimate music. The trio is working inwards, not outwards. Both the instrumentation and the careful recording attest to a new maturity. Case in point, Rose's virtuoso playing is the cohesive (rather than explosive) element that lends the music its stately grace.
by Piero Scaruffi(Untitled) is an album that in terms of feel takes us back to the slowly unfolded, meandering overtones of Empty Bells Ringing in the Sky. Dense clusters of heavily droning and slowly bowed strings and majestic gong kicks off the album, and after letting this one into your skull theres simply no way back. The 32 minutes long second track starts quietly with meandering guitar lines from Jack Rose, but as things progress and instruments are added to the mix everything transforms into something a lot more haunting, intoxicated and amorphous. Track three is possibly the most challenging piece on the record with its sky-high ringing tones bending up and out and around your head, but its also the thing I like the most here. The resonating guitar work and the gritty mantras of aurally demanding drones are simply superb and I cant think of any drone piece that has had such an emotional effect on me this year. That actually goes for the entire album which finds these cats at their absolute best and that is indeed saying a lot. (Untitled) is an incredibly dark and threatening two-headed aural monster thatll keep you awake long after the lights have gone out.
by Matts Gustafsun.. width="425" height="350" ..
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