Vibracathedral Orchestra - "Wisdom Thunderbolt"

We're going to start doing things a little differently now. Jordan's been pretty busy moving and making and DJing and doing so much it would be impossible for him to write properly, which is what we're keen on here, natch. So while he takes an indefinite hiatus (I don't think he'll be breaking up), Michael and I will soldier on for now with a new format: Single post, single artist. The ultimate in minimalism. Sweet. Let's get on with it, then.












Vibracathedral Orchestra - "Sway-Sage" (VHF 2007)

Vibracathedral Orchestra - Wisdom Thunderbolt / VHF

I was in an apartment in downtown Charleston, South Carolina recently. If you've never been there, Charleston's a wonderful town that thrives on culture and history of the distinctly Southern variety. There's houses that have been there since the 1700s and beaches that go on for miles. It's got its underside as any city does, but they're working on it with all the gentrification they politely call it. The poverty continues to work its way further and further from the center of town in the traditions of the European model of urbanization.

Despite exorcising the physical decrepit and decaying, it's a lot harder to exorcise the spiritual and metaphorical: As a quick search will attest, plenty of people are willing to tell you about it. If you're in a house and you're starting to feel the strange chill of something calling from beyond the grave, you need to start bringing in the heavy artillery. Call in the spells.

England's Vibracathedral Orchestra may just be the thing for you. Their own brand of fried-folk drones and psych-outs are the stuff of sheer aural embalming, drawing you in with the might of a few electric guitars and fucking with your mind through chiming bells and theremin swoops and other otherworldly devices. The seven-minute title cut is exactly the kind of thing that Julian Cope was referring to when he said in 2002, "this is music that does not need much describing, indeed it could be off-putting to do so. Instead, listeners just need to be alerted to the fact that it exists." In fact, his review of Dabbling With Gravity & Who You Are could accurately describe most of the VCO's massive back catalog.

The sounds that the members of the Leeds-based band make are truly outerspaced, droning with a vibrancy that could quell any spirit. Though no personal credits are listed on the album, the last official check had the group in the form of original members Mick Flower, Bridget Hayden, Neil Campbell and Adam Davenport joined by Matthew Bower, Chris Corsano, John Godbert and Pete Nolan (Hayden and Campbell have since left, while Flower and Corsano are currently on tour as a duo). Whoever happens to be playing on this release at any given time, Wisdom Thunderbolt is a mighty statement and their best since Tuning to the Rooster.

"A Natural Fact" isn't an obvious highlight, but as the second track it builds anticipation following the tribal drum outro of the opener. The tension in the guitars made it feel almost like Isis after a trip through the Indian slums of Mumbai, sorry, New Delhi. There's a definite Eastern feel here, a Silk Road post-rock of sorts that wouldn't feel out of place alongside those Psychic Paramount b-sides that came out last year. Instead of sounding half-baked as those experiments were, this album is absolutely formed to its fullest. The proof is in the epic centerpiece, 12-minute "Rainbow Whirlwind," which sounds like it was recorded live and runs the gamut of noise-rock tricks that Black Dice have executed in a similar fashion in recent years.

At just around four-and-a-half minutes, "Sway-Sage" is the shortest song on the album, taking a wayward carnival melody and running it through a windtunnel with the water-sprinkler percussion ratcheting along in the background. Fat chance for segues, because it's straight off to the medieval world of "What!!!" to finish off the album. The songs are all over the place, but the end result is not: Vibracathedral Orchestra have exorcised the ghosts of line-up change's past to record a solid album. Feeling safe with the spirits never sounded so good.