Grails
Deep Politics
Temporary Residence Limited

On Deep Politics, Grails’ oft-meditative instrumentation is dressed with an orchestral, cinematic ruching thanks in large part to the efforts of fiddler and composer Timba Harris (Master Musicians of Bukkake). Harris’ involvement on this album helps the Portland quartet wrap their avant-garde post-rock in celluloid and story-telling, and the overall effect is a dynamic soundtrack to curtains blowing in an empty room, cigarette smoke swirling under a lamp post on a rainy night, an empty bottle of desire hitting the floor after a passionate fight, or the bone-chilling glint of a slashing knife. This intricate score of crescendo noir works as both silent beauty and heavy terror, bandying about effluent sci-fi (“Future Primitive”), Italian craftsmanship (Bruno Nicolai’s “All the Colors of the Dark”), blushing romanticism (“Deep Politics”), prog-infused action (“Almost Grew My Hair”), and high-noon drama (“I Led Three Lives”) effortlessly, seamlessly, and extravagantly. Deep Politics doesn’t quite contain the mean zen of albums past, but it’s a creatively rich and enjoyable experience nonetheless. And remember, Grails nuts, the attraction that is Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 5 is supposed to be coming soon.

Listen to “Daughters of Bilitis” from Deep Politics!

Dead Meadow
Three Kings
Xemu

This isn’t so much an album as it is a full-length concert movie with soundtrack. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to track down the DVD (their online store only accepts credit cards and I don’t have one, which is great for staying out of debt but shitty for instances like this), so I haven’t actually seen the film, which apparently consists of live footage and “vignettes that abstractly depict themes of corruption, destruction, and rebirth” while the band “portrays the Three Kings who are the silent watchers of their world.” Seems pretty groovy at any rate, which is Dead Meadow’s specialty, and the soundtrack certainly delivers in that respect. A mixture of old, live songs and new studio recordings, Three Kings is a psychedelic time warp of fuzzy, exotic, Zeppelin-esque boogie that bends and shines like a rainbow in a dope fiend’s mind. Stand-outs for me include the new song “That Old Temple” and the old classics “Seven Seers” and “Beyond the Fields We Know,” the album’s longest running, free-flowing, freak out jam. It might be a bit of a weird one for newcomers, but long-standing Deadheads (or maybe is should be Meadowheads) will surely dig this hazy collection.

Check out the video for “That Old Temple” from the Three Kings movie!