Carlton Melton

Photos of Photos

These most recent rumblings from Carlton Melton will fill every corner of your abode and uplift it to the stratosphere, reverse Baumgartner-style. They have rapidly followed up 'Smoke Drip' with this account of their latest gathering beneath the geodesic dome.

Skeletor has won. He celebrates with Beastman in Greyskull by blasting 'Nor 'easter', burning a few Nag Champa cones and sucking deeply on the shisha fashioned from Cringer's head. It's like they sparked up 'War Pigs' and decided not to bother getting past the intro, instead stretching it out to fog up the eye of Horus with glorious wah and feedback; 'Peace Pigs' if you like.

The more ambient 'Photos of photos' is a thing of breathtaking beauty. Beneath great oceans of divine synth, the guitars pick out pretty little melodies. It manages to sound both huge and understated. 'Space Treader' returns to heavier territory; a catchy riff beneath an ominous drone procession that is gradually sucked into a black hole of noise.

On 'Wingspan', the smoke slowly clears from the dome and Jason Pierce rides in on his white shire horse to greet the dawn. Running a feather along the surface of my brain, it's an open invitation to stroke its mane and contemplate the perfection of the icosahedron. The CD format has two bonus tracks: 'Smoke Drip' and 'Adrift', which eventually works out the nature of the universe by basically jamming on A.

These unforced, naturally-evolving pieces are always a welcome respite from heavily-calculated, precise arrangements which, by the time they get to your ears, have been dehydrated of all creative joy. It's the clear presence of this rapture at creation which makes Carlton Melton so captivating, so one never gets the feeling you're simply party to aimless noodling. The great everything is inside every note.

#Agitated Records #Albums #Carlton Melton #Drone #Psychedelic #space rock #Darren Bibby