six organsClose your curtains, switch on the lava lamps and sink into your most comfortable beanbag. Luminous night fully lives up to its psychedelic/folk/rock genre and Ben Chasney draws on a variety of influences to send you back to the sixties. He does this while staying totally modern and innovative with both instrumentation and content. The Comets on Fire guitarist creates a mellow mood throughout Luminous Nights as the tracks flow together as smoothly as a lowland river. The first track, Actaeon's Fall, sets the pace for the whole album, creating a prelude of sorts. It has mediaeval undertones, portrayed by flutes and strings behind guitars. We are led straight into Anaesthesia which continues many of the musical themes introduced in Actaeon's Fall. The next track, Bar-Nasha, takes us to the sub-Asian continent with tabla wound round with flute and guitar before rocketing us to space in Cover Your Wounds With The Sky in which electronic sounds dominate. The vocals on Ursa Minor are weak, as if from a delicate soul, however the repetitive, more forceful instrumentation steals the light and hides the significance of the voice. Rivers of Heaven brings back the mood and sounds of the first four tracks in a track which would be suitably be piped into many a temple, anywhere in the world. The last two tracks slowly wrap up the album letting it fade away as you may be fading yourself. Luminous Night has finely mixed acoustic and electronic sounds interspersed with Chasney's not so unfamiliar sounding voice. The addition of various instruments such as flute, piano and strings with electronic sounds give a lovely depth and variety of sound to the whole album. -- anna johnston
:: Six Organs Of Admittance/Luminous Night - Drag City/Rough Trade.
