Barrows - Obsidion

Tonzonen Records (TON028)

I had never heard of Barrows from Los Angeles until this three-sided vinyl LP arrived from the Tonzonen HQ. I'm very happy to get to know them now as they have just released their third album since I'm really digging what they are doing. As their Bandcamp site tells us, the album "...depicts the experience of a man who is abducted from earth and brought to ​​​​"Obsidion", a place where dimension is indefinable and the boundaries of human consciousness cease to exist". I can easly get that image while listening to the band's psychedelic, hypnotic, atmospheric and instrumental adventures.

The album starts off with the strange, spacey and ambient intro called "Telekin" and suddenly the band jumps into motorik, hard-driving kraut/space rock mode for the marvellous "Entrada". Any fan of the genre will be immediately enchanted! The last two minutes are quiet, atmospheric soundscapes. One of my favourites already. The over ten-minute, slowly building title track "Obsidion" is maybe closer to post rock but has a weird, experimental edge. Nice! The B side is filled with the monstrous, sci-fidelic "Cacoon" that has a scarey intro and then gets into groovy, hypnotic psych rocking. This stuff reminds me of Lumerians, Giöbia, Vibravoid and a few others, just to give you an idea. After a very cinematic middle part the track starts to rock out very fast and we get some nice soloing as well. I guess the alien is out of its cacoon by now, phew! Amazing. On side C we've got the shorter ambient piece "Manna" and the longer, bautiful and melodic "Zenith" that sounds a bit like some of the more adventurous post-rock bands. The going gets pretty powerful at times and this is a very nice ending for a great, varied album. Go and get it!

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