Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 19/05/2017
Label: Neurot Recordings
an ethereal bagpipe drone, oscillating around your
speakers, waves of guitar effects wash over you and the whole choir of eldritch
noise comes creeping back into view, then departing again, This is” Music For
Megaliths”, the latest record by Harvestman, and as expected, it’s everything
you’d want from a Harvestman record and definitely worth a listen for anyone
into drone, ambient or progressive music.
“Music For Megaliths” CD//DD//LP
track listing:
01. The Forest Is Our Temple
02. Oak Drone
03. Ring Of Sentinels
04. Cromlech
05. Levitation
06. Sundown
07. White Horse
02. Oak Drone
03. Ring Of Sentinels
04. Cromlech
05. Levitation
06. Sundown
07. White Horse
The Review:
It starts
with an ethereal bagpipe drone, oscillating around your speakers, a kind of
psychedelic clarion call melody. Waves of guitar effects wash over you, then
the song picks up momentum with a familiar heartbeat chug, chug, chug. It just
keeps on building and building. A premonitory guitar melody plucked on an
acoustic, then sliding, bending. You wonder where it’s going to go, but the
song reveals that the destination isn’t important, as it slides off into a dull
hum, before expiring. And then coming back to life, briefly, the whole choir of
eldritch noise creeping back into view, then departing again. This is” The Forest is Our Temple
Harvestman is essentially a Steve Von Till
solo project, but differs from the albums that carry his name in that there are
next to no vocals on Harvestman, only an assorted array of
instruments. It’s obvious that Von Till loves just noodling around in a
studio and seeing what he can come up with by stacking tracks and playing with
effects, venturing into the musical hinterland, and Harvestman is the focused,
recorded outcome of this time.
If you’ve
heard this side project before then it’ll offer no surprises, but it’s another
excellent edition to the Neurosis legend’s back catalogue. Aside from
the excellent opener, there are six other tracks on this album. “Oak Drone” is more of the same as the first, “Ring of Sentinels” features a nice little drum loop and soothing
bass line, “Cromlech” has barely any
structure and is simply just a dazzling droney joy feast, while closer “White Horse” is probably the only song
that could come close to appearing on one of Von Till’s folk albums –
haunting acoustic melody accompanied by foreboding vocals and the usual ambiguous,
enchanting lyrics.
Another
solid Harvestman
release – the short length arguably lets it down, as ‘Lashing the Rye’ was twice as long and more varied, but definitely
worth a listen for anyone into drone, ambient or progressive music.
“Music For Megaliths” is available here
