Articles
Caleb Burhans
Causa Sui's Euporie Tide
Mary Halvorson

Albums
14KT
34423
Atiq & EnK
Simon Bainton
Caleb Burhans
Aisha Burns
Causa Sui
Cristal
Current Value
Deepchord
Marcel Dettmann
Diamat
Federico Durand
Benjamin Finger
FiRES WERE SHOT
Free Babyronia
M. Geddes Gengras
Ghost Station
The Green Kingdom
The Green Man
Mary Halvorson Septet
Camilla Hannan
Marek Hemmann
K11
Lawrence
James McVinnie
Alexandre Navarro
Oh, Yoko
Sebastian Plano
Severence
Snow Ghosts
The Stargazer Lilies
Telonius
Tigerskin
Orla Wren
Zinovia

Compilations / Mixes
Air Texture III
Balance Presents Guy J
Cassy
Compost Black Label 5
Enter.Ibiza 2013
Isla Blanca 2013
Loco Dice
Ultrasoft! Anthems 33
Till Von Sein

EPs / Cassettes / Singles
Campbell and Cutler
Coal
dBridge
Desert Heat
Fields
Floex
Jim Fox
High Aura'd / B. Bright Star
Simon Hinter
Moon Ate the Dark
Northern Lights EP
Terrence Parker
Seba
Stephen Whittington
Xtrah

High Aura'd / Blood Bright Star: Split 7-inch
Anti-Matter Records

At just over ten minutes in length, this split seven-inch release by High Aura'd (Massachusetts-based John Kolodij) and Blood Bright Star (Reuben Sawyer) leaves the listener wanting more. That's not entirely a bad thing, of course, though it does seem strange when a piece of music that one could easily imagine stretching out for a good twenty minutes is presented as a five-minute serving. But let's give thanks for what we're given.

On the A-side, Kolodij's “Remain in Light” merges field recordings of rain drizzle with guitars (pedal steel among them) and effects to generate a slowly swelling stormcloud of immense force. Sounds emanate from the track's hazy center, their identity obscured by the density of the mass, though wordless vocals by Glenna Van Nostrand form part of the meditative mix. While Kolodij eschews beats in his offering, Sawyer grounds the fretwork in “Golden Blood, Part II” with a raw motorik groove, its steady pulse an anchor for the multi-layered shudders and electrified, e-bow-styled expressions stretched across it. With a faint whiff of psychedelia rising from the material, the track smolders intensively for five, dreamlike minutes before flaming out.

Let's acknowledge Anti-Matter, too, for its commitment to quality presentation: the release houses a doublemint green vinyl disc within a black dust sleeve and hand-screenprinted gatefold jacket, and a complimentary download card for digital versions of both tracks is included, too. Good things sometimes do come in small packages.

October 2013