British space-improv collective
Vibracathedral Orchestra's fourth proper album -- not counting the many extremely rare limited-edition CD-Rs and other obscurities the group has released in its short lifetime -- is a surprisingly varied collection of nine tracks ranging from an intoxicating pair of 20-minute epics that recall the proto-Krautrock trance grooves of
Amon Düül's Psychedelic Underground (particularly the luminescent, almost gamelan-like "Goodnight Stars, Goodnight Air") and a bunch of much shorter works that tend to introduce a sound or feel, play with it for a while, and then gracefully end. The best of these is the cicada-like buzz of "The Silent Socket" and the rumbly, chaotic "Magnetic Burn," which recalls some of the more free-form moments of the surviving Velvet Underground live tapes. ~ Stewart Mason