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              Grails - Burning Off Impurities
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Artist...............: Grails
Album................: Burning Off Impurities
Source...............: NMR
Year.................: 
Ripper...............: NMR
Codec................: LAME 3.90
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: Standard, (avg. bitrate: 204kbps)
Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz
ID3-Tag v1...........: 1.0
ID3-Tag v2...........: 2.3
APE-Tag..............: -
Information..........: 

Ripped by............: NMR
Posted by............: Skid on 12/1/2007
News Server..........: news.easynews.com
News Group(s)........: alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.indie
                       alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.post-rock

Included.............: NFO, M3U, PAR v2
Covers...............: Front 

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                       Tracklisting
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01. (06:40) Grails - Soft Temple
02. (02:15) Grails - More Extinction
03. (08:14) Grails - Silk Rd
04. (04:56) Grails - Drawn Curtains
05. (07:47) Grails - Outer Banks
06. (04:41) Grails - Dead Vine Blues
07. (07:51) Grails - Origin-ing
08. (07:49) Grails - Burning Off Impurities

Playing Time.........: 50:17
Total Size...........: 73.11 MB

NFO generated on.....: 12/1/2007 3:34:09 PM


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When the Grails released the compendium of their Black Tar Prophecies EPs in 
a single-CD volume -- two had previously been issued on vinyl only, the third 
was released only as part of the collection -- they found themselves exploring 
new and varied sonic territory. They moved away from the early post-rock 
schematics that had landed them in a seemingly inescapable sonic furrow. 
Black Tar Prophecies was their strongest recording to date. Hot on its heels, 
just months later, comes this behemoth of swirling, free-floating, mysterious 
psychedelia but it certainly doesn't end there. Elements of Eastern modal folk 
music, improvisational and African polyrythms, ambient soundscapes and 
layered textures of various "other" instruments such as guest Dylan Rice-
Leary's harmonica, Cory Gray's baritone horn, and Kate O'Brien's violin add to 
the free-for-all while the Grails contribute enough of their own strangeness. 
Skin man and main keyboardist Emil Amos (who worked with Jandek for a 
while as a drummer) also plays melodica, guitarist Zak Riles -- who is part of 
M. Ward's band as well -- plays oud, banjo and pedal steel, bassist William 
Slater also plays keys (Rhodes, harpsichord), and guitarist Alex J. Hall does 
all the sampling. While the opener "Soft Temple" begins in a subtle enough 
way with throbbing bass and deep, hollow sounding drums to go along with 
variously stringed things, it slides into a rather minor-key slither and drone 
underscored by a piano playing spare lines as a "melody" though it's all mode.

It's dreamy in a rather sinister way, but drifts and moves along nicely, 
especially as the electric guitars enter, though they never approach din, 
preferring to allow the drones and Indian raga melodies speak for themselves 
until they reach psych mass. By "Silk Road," the third of these eight cuts, folk 
forms not only underscore the proceedings but inform them directly and are 
eventually injected with freak-outs that never quite overwhelm their rather 
loosely attenuated forms. Dynamics, texture and plenty of echo frame these 
proceedings. Melodies begin to assert themselves from the gloom only to 
morph into others, even more skeletal. Percussion drops in and leaves 
unannounced, though because of the employments of very distinctive 
drones, they never seem out of place and can ratchet up tempo as well as 
bring it down to a crawl in a very short time. There are so many change sin 
this piece it feels impossible to document them all. Yet the listener is never 
overcome by the shifts and maze-like constructs. They all seem to float, dive, 
dip and rise again almost effortlessly. The rest of this album moves the same 
way; whether it's in the truly sinister organic breakbeat workout of "Outer 
Banks" adorned simply by effects and electric guitars and bass, the acoustic
-mass steel orgy that is "Dead Vine Blues," the space-time anachronistic dub-
float meets Morricone that is "Origin-Ing," or the turtle walking, creepy crawl 
bliss of the title track which closes the set. If anything, Burning Off Impurities 
is a recording that takes on different aspects each time it is played. The Grails 
are their own frontier now, and have advanced the instrumental rock genre 
by miles, creating possibility, beauty and atmosphere everywhere they 
travel, but leaving beautiful ruins in their wake. One of the best bets of 2007 
without doubt.
--  AMG Review by Thom Jurek
http://wc09.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gpfpxzu5ld0e~T1
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