fakejazz.com

The moral to Animals Speak the Spirit Tongue is that you have to do a lot of mediation before you can achieve Zen. The album's first three songs and 18 minutes are relatively confrontational and atonal, but once you break through those songs, the last six minutes are beauty and bliss. The album starts with "Crystal Agony" where sustained tones from feedback create an Eastern European folk vibe. The clarinet creates a slide-whistle type sound as tribal hand-drumming and distorted chants and ohhms create tension. This tension gives way to "Eternities Diamond Prison Syst," where muted screams, scratches, and banging haunt the space. "Enternity Has a Landlord" begins the transcendence, as chimes and meditative guitar create pleasant tones underneath a hailstorm of clatter. The last two songs, "Spirits and Retribution" and "Walkin' Gilded Coals," are the blissful end to the album. In the first, a fluttery flute floats on top of a bellowing cloud of keyboards. The soft sounds melt into each other, creating a gentle, free glide. In the latter, a clutter of clanging keyboards, chimes, and metal percussion creates a dense but pleasant bed of texture. The wyrd folk version of "Acknowledgement"/"Resolution"/"Pursuance"/"Psalm"?

Wooden Cupboard at Amazon & Insound