Prana Crafter / Bodhi Cheetah's Choice

The tilting of music-release culture (or commerce) that has formed a Himalayan supply-side range of product that dwarfs its audience in number, time, energy and labor should at least have this upside: if you want to make music for a micro niche-within-a-niche audience spread all over the world, you can. Similarly, if you want to pursue an ancient (in pop years) and arcane (to pop ears) path no one is going to stop you. So, this must be the most fertile and potent period for the expression and expansion of musical freedom in the age of mechanical reproduction (and its subsequent digital echo). And it might be. It is difficult to survey it in real time (it was probably once a manageable feat).

Records like this only make the case for a cultural stasis and retreat. It is the musical equivalent of staying in a Malay jungle until 1995 convinced that WW2 rages on. This is not a hard listen. It rolls along. The players are very competent. They are feeling something and connecting as they play. They create a feel. They are working in a clear idiom. It is too sincere to be pastiche. BUT the date stamp matters. If this was made in some cabin in the Washington woods in 1967, I could like it more. I am no more able to offer an aesthetic assessment of this than I am to write a critical appreciation of a piece of reproduction antique furniture. Plenty of artists are taking psych to new places. Maybe this band will, too but I suspect the fact that the 'Limited Edition Copper & Bone Swirl Vinyl' version of their album has SOLD OUT tells me everything I need to know for now. I am not singling this release out, it just represents something that I see a lot from the supposed liberated margins of music production.