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SubArachnoid Space: Confusion is Next

Lady's in trouble, one way or another.There?s little doubt everything about San Francisco freak rockers SubArachnoid Space?s ninth full-length, Eight Bells (Crucial Blast) is meant to provoke a reaction. The Stephen Kasner cover art is at once horrific and beautiful — we see a severed arm but also several other phantom limbs from the figure in Venus-like repose and the image is undoubtedly bleak in nature but still somehow triumphant — and the music that spreads across the five tracks that comprise the album follow a similar course of leading listeners in with engulfing sounds before repelling them again with complex changes and other sonic experiments.

It?s a battle of accessibility, and maybe that?s the intent all along. If so, then it?s most fully realized on the second of the five pieces, ?Akathesia.? The title a reference to the inner restlessness keeping one from standing still, this is almost certainly evoked in the music, which follows a gradually building structure across its 13-plus minutes to an insistent and pulsating start-stop conclusion that is not only the most aggressive moment on Eight Bells, but also the most satisfying. It does what closing duo ?Haruspex? and ?Bird Signs? try to do all on its own.

Focus! (Photo by Orange Eyes Photography)But it?s right from the opening cut, ?Lilith,? that SubArachnoid Space manifests its restlessness. The active guitar work of Meylinda Jackson and Daniel Osborne gives way to hauntingly modified samples and in a way the track feels incomplete. This uneasiness is capitalized on in the aforementioned ?Akathesia,? and soon Eight Bells becomes a psychedelic event that seems to afflict itself on more senses than just the ears. I can almost taste the confusion.

Jackson has surrounded herself with an entirely new lineup on Eight Bells. Osborne, drummer Lauren K. Newman, bassist Daniel Barone and Steven Wray Lobdell — who handled acoustic guitar, percussion and production/mixing/mastering and may or may not be an actual member of the band — are all new to the fold since 2005?s The Red Veil, but that doesn?t mean the band?s intentions are choppy or understated. In every way, Eight Bells demonstrates SubArachnoid Space, and Jackson as the presumed main composer, understanding what they want out of the music and how to achieve it. Even through the more upfront atmosphere of ?Hunter Seeker,? there is a sense of purpose.

As with any instrumental outfit, there are those who simply won?t be able to relate. Perhaps that applies even more so to SubArachnoid Space, given their propensity for experimentation and open creativity, but for those who want some thought-provoking adventure in their listening experience, Eight Bells provides in five tracks what others might take three albums to achieve. One can only hope this lineup persists over several records, because to see how the current incarnation progresses should be interesting indeed. Hopefully things only get weirder from here out.

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Crucial Blast

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