Yume Bitsu
"The Golden Vessyl of Sound"
(K Records)

Yume Bitsu have been around for a while, but this is the first record of theirs that I've heard, and I like what I hear. There are no song titles, and an intriguing story on the origin of sound as we know it that would probably work as Elf Power liner notes as well. The sound can best be described as an American version (i.e. more aggressive) of Sigur Ros, especially the first song, with its churning guitars and slow bubbling cauldron of feedback wrapped around soaring vocals that aren't saying anything at all. All these songs have that certain lysergic quality, and the fact that they are almost entirely improvised adds a great deal to the effect. Most of the songs are epics, with a few exceptions, such as the relatively timid third track which is more of a "song" with plaintive guitar strumming and actual lyrics (good ones at that). The other exceptionally short track is song five, which is more of an organ/synth experimentation that segues nicely into the absolute monster sixth song. A slowly moving 18-minute suite of drone and fuzz, the song sweeps through a range of tonalities that at once relax and enrapture you. Surprisingly, the album closes with a little rave-up, an eight minute piece of drum box and feedback that sounds like it belongs at the closing credits of some movie about disenchanted suburbanite drug-users who finally learn that love can transcend all. Definitely a must for fans of the whole drone rock thing, especially fans of Bardo Pond, or anyone who ever purchased an issue of the Ptolemaic Terrascope.

-Dan