专辑简介

by Ned Raggett

Collecting various appearances from the bands or variations thereof from the series of Terrastock festivals, celebrations of psychedelic-inspired music done in association with the Ptolemaic Terrascope fanzine, this enjoyable disc will be of interest to fans of both bands and of modern drone music in general. The key performance takes up almost two-thirds of the disc, featuring all three members of the Lothars along with Carl Hultgren on "3rd Stage," a half-hour improvisation from the London Terrastock festival. With the haunting sound of the Lothars' theremins matched by an equally mysterious, heavily treated turn by Hultgren, the result is as serene as a prayer and as murky and haunting as a set from Main. Hearing the almost horn-like call of one theremin floating above the deep echo and howls like a lost spirit makes for enough magic alone to justify checking the whole disc out. Three shorter pieces complement "3rd Stage," starting with two selections from Windy & Carl's brilliant, majestic set at the San Francisco Terrastock. Both "Through the Portal" and "Ballast" have all the open-ended shimmer and electric cascading flow that helped the duo make their mark, and it's just wonderful to hear how the two interplay so beautifully. The appearance of Windy Weber's low, drawn-out vocals on the latter song adds a nice twist to the album as a whole, otherwise all-instrumental. Finally, also from that Terrastock festival, two of the Lothars are joined by other musicians, notably New Zealand legend Alastair Galbraith on violin for "Dust Mah Space Broom," which isn't so much bluesy as -- thanks to Ramona Herboldsheimer's great guitar riff -- a good slice of tripped-out space rock surge. The appearance of Mike DiMilla on often-squalling, wired-up accordion further adds to the just-fried-enough edge of the collaboration.