ULAAN KHOL - SALT
soft abuse 2015
"his own personal strain of psychedelic guitar exploration, alternating between blistering, hypnotic and meditative, with his scorching guitar firmly at the center." - SOFT ABUSE
a december tape that didn't make it to my deck in time for timely recommendation - STEVEN R SMITH is one of my favorite guitar wizards out there and ULAAN KHOL is my favorite of his projects being the heaviest noisiest pathway of his stark post blues contemporary to folks like TOM CARTER, LOREN CONNORS and ROY MONTGOMERY -- KHOL typically lands at the aggressive end of that spectrum - grungy post apocalyptic drone rock infused with bottleneck blues, apalachian folk and desert psychedelia - it seems like a lot but that's SRS, he packs a lot into his rather minimal yet enthralling soundscapes - given the epic CEREMONY trilogy where SRS honed his KHOL sound and then perfected on ENDING/RETURNING, it wouldn't be unfair to say that SALT doesn't quite measure up, but i don't think it intends to - SRS cuts loose, relatively speaking, i mean his music is always gonna be moody and reserved but this is about as close as we'll get to SRS kickin out the jams - SALT is a well deserved victory lap, and it kicks ass
highly recommended
http://www.softabuse.com/catalog.php?catno=SAB076
LIMITED EDITION CASSETTES
