With Black Tar Prophecies 4, Grails reawakenthe series that initially began the run of recordsthat mapped their rise to the forefront of moderninstrumental music. While recording their full-lengthwith an eye towards cohesion and epic production,the Black Tar series affords Grails a backdoor to ablack lodge where they can explore total head music.In this volume Grails combine backmasked Satanictape collage with old Emmanuelle soundtracks,pushing them further in the direction of a classicalItalian melodrama soundtracked by Nurse WithWound. The Black Tar material is conceived slowly,in between tours and full-length albums, givingthe series its own experimental space and keepingits final sum unknown even to its practitioners. Asbefore, the series format will consist of two vinyl EPsand an eventual CD version. Like the slab of blackslate in the opening of Kubrick s 2001, Black Tar isan attempt to bring the ritual act of music back to itsoriginal mysterious genesis, where the listener andartist both stare into a nebula s electric cloud beforeit takes its inevitable shape as a planet.
B**1
The blackest tar
I can honestly say I've never heard anything like this before. Grails are an immensely talented band, and the Black Tar Prophecies material exhibits their more experimental side. Black Tar really is the perfect name for such experiments - most of it is dark and feels like trudging through waist-deep molasses. And I love it.One of my favorite parts of this EP is the spliced-in sound clip snippets. One of them, in the first track, is altered and slowed down, making it sound like the record is actually covered in a viscous, tar-like substance: "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...nobody knows my sorrow." There's a lot of great material here in this 5-track EP, and possibly the album highlight comes during the final song, "Up All Night." A lighter note in what is otherwise a very dark conceptual piece of work, the piano arrangement in this track is beautiful and soaring.It's hard to refer to what you hear here as "music." It certainly is music, in many senses of the word, but it's really more like sonic art. The whole EP flows together into what would have made a great score for a dark Italian noir film. Can't wait for Vol. 5, which Grails has said will be a split with one of their favorite bands, and Vol. 6, undoubtedly after that. I hope these guys keep up the great work, because it really is a shining beacon in a sea of generic-sounding radio-friendly pop music. Even if the beacon is dripping with black tar...
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