Droning Chants Warmed by Volcano Suns

Comments (0) By Zach Baron Tuesday, Jun 13 2006

Sure, you could make something of The Sun Awakens' artwork—up looms a lava-drenched volcano, above it a reddish orb poised halfway between eruption and old-fashioned solar illumination—but why bother? Just last year, the flavorful drone 'n' free-jazz snare whacks of Six Organs' School of the Flower pulled the same bait and switch, branding otherworldly, astral-planed proceedings with, yup, a prosaic flower on the album cover. So of course the tentative stabs of gorgeous guitar on Awakens' opener "Torn by Wolves" don't last (or erupt, or shine): Why would head Organ Ben Chasny opt for truth in advertising now? Watch instead for the subtle undercurrents in the murder scene "The Desert Is a Circle" (depicting skies as menacingly blue as anything Morricone music evokes) or "River of Transfiguration," which less flows than slowly dissolves into rivulets of watery chimes and chanting. Sickest is the mile-wide bass laid down by OM's Al Cisneros on that track—the closest thing to actual heat here, and more than enough to keep you warm throughout.