White Rainbow: Prism of Eternal Now
kranky

Album and song titles like Prism of Eternal Now, “Mystic Prism,” and “For Terry” clearly reveal the type of psychedelic universe inhabited by Adam Forkner (member of space-rock outfits Yume Bitsu and The Surface of Eceyon and co-owner of Yarnlazer, a small independent record label he operates with Honey Owens aka Valet) and the Portland, Oregon resident admittedly does list tablas, gongs, water jug, and, yes, hands, breath, and time as part of the album's sonic ingredients, but don't dismiss his White Rainbow project too quickly as some anachronistic inner space exploration that somehow slipped free of the ‘60s space-time continuum. Yes, scorched-earth guitars do wail over trippy percussion patterns and electronics during the incantatory “Pulses” and hallucinatory “Mystic Prism.” But the album also includes a pastoral, fifteen-minute drone of crystalline shimmer called “April 25 th 11:14 PM” that's worth the price of admission alone, and the album's second half nudges the White Rainbow sound closer to the present with heady space drones (“Warm Clicked Fruit,” “Guitars,” “Awakening”) and vaporous soundscaping (“Waves”). In addition, “For Terry” actually gravitates more towards No Pussyfooting than In C, as scalding, Fripp-styled guitars arc and swoop over a lurching array of Eno-like electronics and swirls. And don't think Forkner's seventy-minute kranky debut is long either, because it's practically anorexic compared to his 2006 Marriage Records box set whose five CDs and single DVD weigh in at a psychotropic 4.5 hours.

October 2007