You may have heard of the Taos Hum: an unexplained low-frequency drone that tormented residents of Taos, New Mexico, to the point where they petitioned Congress to investigate. The Hum may have been a nuisance to them, but Californian psych merchants Carlton Melton would probably prefer to increase its volume and allow the whole world to be enveloped by its hypnotic monotony.
Photos Of Photos is an extraordinary record: dense, fluid and otherworldly, it comprises several monumental, snail’s-pace tectonic slabs of glistening space-doom that fans of Om, Sunn 0))), Spacemen 3 and Loop will cheerfully surrender to.
The surging black shimmer of opening freakout Nor’easter and equally overpowering Space Treader are the most conventional moments, but it’s the scratched-lens ambience of the title track and the swirling black hole mantra of 22-minuter Adrift that provide the stiffest challenge to conventional notions of structure and sanity.
Recorded in drummer Brian McDougall’s very own geodesic dome, this is a triumph of natural acoustics and improvisational zeal. Definitely one to alter your state to…
