Ascent
Northern California
(Drag City)
“The return of the legendary Comets on Fire! Mostly!”
Six Organs of Admittance is the name Comets on Fire guitarist Ben Chasny records under, usually Fahey/Jansch style acoustic compositions. This is wholly different. For this album, the rest of his old band backs him up, but it’s not a Comets reunion record. Chasny plays all the many solos and is the main voice. The usual acoustic free-folk pasture of Anne Briggs in a sun dress is a bare memory as Chasny cuts loose on wild, E.T.-style, out-of-hand solos while Ethan Miller (of the Comets and main Howlin’ Rain guy, right-channel guitar on Ascent) gives space for all the wildness to expand. All rhythm or second-guitarists should pay close attention to what he doesn’t play. (As a side note, Ascent seems to be mixed so that the louder you play it, the clearer the mix is.)
Just as Miller knows what not to play, Chasny seems to know when to pull back on the maximalist space-rock. “Your Ghost” is an acoustic song with a lullaby tempo (it still manages to get in lines about space travel, but in a very touching way). After all the guitar abuse and MC5-style grooves, the true highlight is at the end of the album and an uncharacteristic track for Ascent; “Visions (From IO)” sounds like a great All Things Must Pass “should-have-been.” If anything, this song is not busy with overdrive and green Ibanez pedals. It’s open and floating where other parts of the album feel like take-off. “It’s a dream that keeps me breathing,” Chasny sings. That is exactly how this song feels. It gives you that pause to feel that you’re breathing again. [editor’s note – this record is batshit amazing]