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LP
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DC 810LP
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2021 release. "A new instrumental album of acoustic guitar playing from Six Organs of Admittance's Ben Chasny! Everybody knows it's been far too long since 2004's much-beloved For Octavio Paz; even as the landscape has crowded with acoustic players, we've all been dying to hear Ben's distinctive virtuosity again in this format. But The Intimate Landscape is so much more . . . KPM Music, the legendary British library music company, extended an offer to Ben to make some songs for their library. Well aware of their history, he immediately agreed. The field of library music (music made for hire, for use in placement in films and advertising) is one that's come to public consciousness only relatively recently in the long century of record-making, but the influence of such records has been felt for years in the aesthetics of many diverse artists, including several who've recorded for Drag City . . . Ben chose the acoustic guitar for these recordings after considering the width and breadth of possible music he could make for the occasion. His approach while playing it was simple -- deceptively so: to make music as present and immediate and beautiful as possible. This type of playing requires a deep breath before beginning, as it has to generate from within, as well as at the fingertips. The resulting music is inventive and engaging, both in and out of the astral style of Ben's music and the utilitarian genre of music to which he's contributing. The album's title -- The Intimate Landscape -- is a clue to these dual intentions, as is Ben's use of his given name rather than the 6OOA alias he has preferred in his career. These songs manifest lovely themes played on acoustic guitar, recorded with spacious, almost pastoral ambiance; richly evocative pieces that can fill the multiple purposes of any sound library around the world. When paired with their titles, however -- such as, 'Last Night to Use the Telescope,' 'Circular Road,' and 'On the Way to the Coast' -- these pieces are profoundly re-contextualized as potent personal expressions. So too are the songs with titles like 'Water Dragon,' 'Star Cascade,' and 'Dust In the Ravine.' Two decades-plus into his life in music, Ben's got the craft and ability to make music that can be encompassing heard as intimate AND universal. Going for melody, Ben employs a relaxed technical facility, supported by a few guitar overdubs, plus several well-placed synths and a passage of wordless vocalizing, accessing the murky depths of his reservoir of spirituality while hand-spinning irresistible sonic candy at the same time. This is a greatly engrossing listening experience, regardless of what the listener's intentions are..."
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CARD SET
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DC 635BK
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"Any regular deck of playing cards can be used to execute the correspondences of The Hexadic System. You can play poker with them, or solitaire. However, to accent the ritual aspect of the Hexadic methodology, a custom deck was designed by Steve Quenell in collaboration with Ben Chasny. Face cards pay tribute to a number of figures who have influenced Six Organs of Admittance over the years. Markings on the cards specific to the Hexadic System are a part of the custom design of the Hexadic Deck. This deck can be purchased separately from The Hexadic System book, and is sure to be of interest for enthusiasts of this new system as well as members of the card collector community."
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LP
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FTR 138LP
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This album has been a long time coming. Dredd and Ben first talked about collaborating back in the late '90s and it's now 2014 and the goddamn thing has only just arrived. Was the wait worth it? You bet your teeth it was. While this album would have been pretty great if they'd done it back in the day, the fact it has been allowed to age and grow of its own accord lends the project a richness and beauty beyond easy comparison. This specific album grew out of some shows Dredd and Ben have done together over the past couple of years. The communication between the two of them was deep and crisp, even from the very first note they played together. I don't recall if there'd been any rehearsing at all, but Ben's electric guitar was weaving around and through Dredd's vocals and acoustic strings as though he'd been doing it since he was a pup. Having seen Mr. Foole perform in a wide variety of situations over the past 33 years, I can assure you that he has rarely been in such telepathic company. From the extreme blabbermouth lockjaw of "Pressed for Illumination" to the relatively quiet melancholia of "Four Roses for Jack," the sounds on Drunk with Insignificance are utterly maxist. Dredd's songs have never sounded better, and Ben pulls an exquisite raft of riffs out of his sombrero. If you have a fondness for either of these legends of the contemporary underground, you owe it to yourself to check out this collaboration. It will shiver your timbers down to their very roots. Beautiful. Edition of 300.
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12"
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GDR 003EP
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"Working around their core unit of Afonso Simoes (drums), Guilherme Goncalves (electric guitar) and Nelson Gomes (synthesizers), here they find themselves cooperating for the first time with the wonderfully psychedelically vigorous bass playing of Rui Damaso (part of the legendary Loosers) and the topographically globetrotting ways of wayward adventurer conga orchestrator Jerry the Cat (formerly a part of Funkadelic/ Parliament and C.J. & Co touring bands; and later performed on records of Carl Craig, Recloose, Moodymann, Theo Parrish, and many others), both now members of the band. On Broda they're joined by Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Comets On Fire, ETC!), truly one of the most powerful forces in US guitar soul in recent decades, and as terrific a six-string player as one of likely to find on record and onstage in this day and age, wherever that might be. Broda careers through in three passages of positively organized jamming. The fruits of a week's very intense work on freedom and democracy in the collective artistic gesture revealed in only the slightest of documentarian restraints, so as to excuse us into peeking into this cosmology of friendship and externalization of the luminous."
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