Illinois five-piece Lark’s Tongue will release their debut album, Narrow, through their own Bird Dialect Records on Sept. 20 (preorder here). The eight-song 2LP plays out in utter defiance of its title: Narrow is anything but as Lark’s Tongue explore the spaces between heavy psychedelia and post-rock, working influences from New Wave melancholia into songs like “Hecate” and concocting rich vocal harmonies to complement the airy backing of guitar effects and synth that constitute their lush, immersive sound when paired with deep bass and underlying drums that seem to hold the whole thing together. At 63 minutes, it is as ambitious a debut as one is likely to hear this year or any other, and its weight is matched by both its sonic and emotional resonance.

There are moments at which, with the spacious mix, ever-present focus on melody and heavy push, Lark’s Tongue remind of mid-period Katatonia or some of Anathema‘s former glories, but they seem to take the long way around to get there. That is, I don’t think it’s a direct influence, and rather that the wisping guitar of “Lay Me Down Slow” and the dramatic vocals of “Hermit’s Lament” come more from post-rock than the doom that took earlier inspiration from it. Still, as Narrow plays out, even in a heavier-rocking cut like “The Mask of Evil,” there’s a definite sense of clarity in Lark’s Tongue‘s vision, and the method of expression varies widely between the dreamy opening of “Windows and Mirrors” and the drone-to-apex finale of “Brown Recluse,” but what remains consistent is the smoothness with which they execute the material and the vast range of the album’s scope, undercutting the notion of Narrow as a first album and giving away members’ experience in acts like Minsk, Men of Fortune, Deceased Priest and JuanGoblin.

Lark’s Tongue is comprised of Chris Bennett, Jeff Hyde, Nate Lucas, Jon Wright and Andrew Sledd, and whatever else Narrow may or may not be, it’s a huge leap from where they were last year on their split with Across Tundras (streamed here). Listening to it is like diving into a pool, the way the band’s sound encompasses, especially when played at appropriate volume. Perhaps the most immersive moment is “Cold Hands,” which over the course of its 10 minutes rises from minimal guitar drones to a huge, lumbering tonal crush topped with somehow-still-under-control vocals that really emphasize just how far ahead of the game these guys are.

They’ll play two release shows for Narrow on Sept. 19 and 20. PR wire details and LP preoroder info follow the album itself, which you can hear on the player below.

Please enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=400 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=larks-tongue-narrow.xml]

Following a debut 7″ and split 12″s with Across Tundras and Men of Fortune, Narrow is the debut full-length from Lark’s Tongue and the ninth release on the band’s own label, Bird Dialect. It features eight expansive songs across two LPs that collectively encapsulate the band’s first four years of existence.

Narrow is a pilgrimage across the vastness of psychedelic rock to places at once familiar and foreboding, severe and loving, intricate and immense. It’s the band’s first fully-formed missive: a statement of intention, a transmission of catharsis, a halcyon ode to the power of transformation.

A vinyl release show is set for September 20th at Ear in the Envelope in Peoria, Illinois, just one day after the band opens for the legendary Nik Turner’s Hawkwind at RIBCO in Rock Island.

Recorded by Jeff Gregory at ToneLab/Earth Analog
Mixed by Sanford Parker at Hypercube
Mastered by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room

Pre-order the record at birddialect.bigcartel.com. For more information, visit birddialect.com or larkstongue.bandcamp.com.

Next week, Illinois-based trio Men of Fortune will release their debut full-length, Time Lovingly Bled, on Bird Dialect Records, striking an intriguing balance between progressive heavy rock and psychedelic influences. Desert-style jamming may have been a starting point, but it becomes increasingly clear over the course of jumpy opener “Voices from the Void” — think Queens of the Stone Age on a hangout with glory-days Faith No More — which sets a linear standard that the rest of Time Lovingly Bled seems to follow, the path the record takes branching out from its crunchy starting point and, later, delving into tripped-out hypnosis that’s jarring only in how effective it is in not being jarring. These Men of Fortune — guitarist/engineer Joel Madigan, drummer Andrew Sledd and bassist Mike Willey — prove equally comfortable in jagged rhythmic push or smooth waveform drone, and though they’ve all done time in other bands, Men of Fortune seem quickly to be establishing their own sonic persona in these six tracks.

But for the penultimate drone-out “Nymphatic Meditation,” all of the cuts on Time Lovingly Bled top seven minutes long, and much of that time is given to builds and exploration, “Some Crystal Dawn” taking an immediately more circuitous route than the opener with a feedback-peppered stretch leading to post-rock ambience, gradually working its way toward an apex with echoing leads and progressive sway that revives the chorus. Patience becomes even more the theme with “The Passing Shame,” which moves fluidly through layered acoustics and electric guitars to an intricate payoff of its own that ends side A in large but not overblown fashion, some of the melody hinting at a ’90s influence that will further manifest in the Alice in Chains vibing that crops up in the vocals later on closer “Child of Earth.” Men of Fortune‘s real psychedelic breadth is saved for side B, with “Only Believers” being as clear a signal even digitally of a side-based shift in approach as one could ask.

Perhaps because of its more peaceful surroundings, the crescendo of “Only Believers” seems even larger as it unfolds, rich in low end and marked out by layers of effects noise behind the vocals. If at this point you fall into a trance and snap back to consciousness sometime into “Child of Earth,” it’s easy to argue that as being Men of Fortune‘s intent, “Nymphatic Meditation” lulls the listener into melodic atmospherics from which the finale emerges and builds more or less starting from the ground up into fuller-toned push at its halfway point, drawing a swirling culmination together from a deep-running ether, adding a last touch of progressive desert lead-work and finally deconstructing the whole thing so that only the noise remains. Particularly in its second half, it’s an immersive experience, and in honor of the LP coming out next week, I’m happy to be able to present it on the player below, followed by some more info courtesy of Bird Dialect. Enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=370 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=men-of-fortune-time-lovingly-bled.xml]

From the terrestrial base of Peoria, Illinois, Men of Fortune craft galactic battle hymns for the next millennium. Smokey and dense, their debut full-length is a hypnotic sojourn through rock, prog and psychedelia that’s both cosmic and muscular, ethereality tethered to the beating heart at the center of all. Marrying feral odes and dark lullabies, it’s a seduction consummated on wax as a sacrament for your own astral travels.

With bassist Mike Willey joining the rhythmic force of Andrew Sledd and trance-inducing riffs of Joel Madigan, Men of Fortune have become the power trio they always were. An epic passage of spirit, Time Lovingly Bled launches heavy cosmic jams far from the safety of Earth, but its weightless freefall never wears out its welcome.

Recorded by Joel Madigan at Sound of Mind in Peoria, IL. Mixed by Sanford Parker at Hypercube in Chicago, IL. Mastered at Prairie Cat Mastering in Belvidere, IL.

Men of Fortune on Thee Facebooks

Time Lovingly Bled at Bird Dialect Records