Ulaan Khol - La Catacomb - Soft Abuse
Pummeling in its poise, La Catacomb is a leveling slow burner of frayed guitar work that finds its peace in waves of distortion. Without thinking too much about it, the reference that comes to mind is Popul Vuh's soundtrack work for Herzog -- that sense of calm and unease somehow at the same time. Impeccable stuff. Honestly it's a little bit weird to me that this is only on tape, enough so that I spent some time looking for who had put out the vinyl version only to find that there was none. A little background info, Ulaan Khol is a project of Steven R. Smith, who first came to my attention in the early Aughts via his excellent work as Hala Strana, though he was also playing in Thuja at the time along side Loren Chasse and Glenn Donaldson. Which is to say he is a veteran of the Jewelled Antler scene and has been "doing it" for a while now. Really excellent tape, highly recommended!

$7, email eggyrecords@gmail.com to order it.