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Six Organs of Admittance, Burning the Threshold: A Return from the Hexadic

six organs of admittance burning the threshold

Considering how much of Ben Chasny‘s approach in the nearly 20 years he’s operated under the banner of Six Organs of Admittance has been experimental — from solo-crafted noise drones to full-band psychedelic blowouts on various albums, limited releases, one-off collaborations, and so on — it doesn’t seem fair to think of his latest outing, Burning the Threshold, as some kind of “return to roots,” but it does represent a marked realignment of his sound. Burning the Threshold arrives via Drag City as the follow-up to 2015’s Hexadic (review here) and 2016’s Hexadic II, which served as a vehicle for a complex, mathematical, somewhat opaque (to my caveman brain) method of composition of Chasny‘s own devising — he wrote a book about it as well — and were arguably his most progressive and conceptual offerings the guitarist also known for Comets on FireRangdaAugust Born, and so on, has put forth.

Unsurprisingly, as Chasny moves away from the Hexadic system at least for the time being and shifts toward a more straightforward songwriting style, his material seems far less angular and far more accessible. At an unassuming nine tracks/40 minutes, Burning the Threshold breathes out richly melodic folk, tinged with psychedelia particularly on “Taken by Ascent” in a way that pieces like “Close to the Sky” from 2012’s Ascent (review here), or the tense title-track of 2007’s Shelter from the Ash have dared to be — the album between, 2009’s Luminous Night, looked more toward Easternisms for its psych explorations, when it wasn’t droning out — including arrangements of drums, bass and guitar, but the core of Six Organs of Admittance is Chasny as the auteur.

Where the Hexadic records were more of a display for the system itself — not to say they weren’t expressive, but in a different manner — Burning the Threshold reemphasizes the human such that pieces like “Under Fixed Stars” or the instrumental “Around the Axis” in the album’s midsection feel burn of folk traditions despite remaining forward thinking. If that isn’t the definition of “neo-folk,” it should be, but whatever one calls it, the execution is Chasny‘s own and will be immediately recognizable as such to those who’ve followed him from releases like the aforementioned Shelter from the Ash or the earlier The Sun Awakens (2006), School of the Flower (2005) and Compathia (2003). He’s not recreating those sounds, varied as they were, but moving ahead with perhaps a similar foundation. The sweetness of opener “Things as They Are” comes across as a marked statement of intent; immediately Burning the Threshold is a return to reality, even with its chorus about angels and moral portrait of the universe.

six organs of admittance (Photo-by-Elisa-Ambrogio)

Followed by “Adoration Song,” which along with gorgeous layers of self-harmonized singing subtly introduces backing vocals, electric guitar, bass and drums that will be pivotal later on “Taken by Ascent,” the beginning of the record is as wonderfully immersive as only a sigh of relief can be. As he guides listeners through the tracklist, the short, acoustic-only instrumental piece “Reservoir” leading to the aforementioned, more fleshed out pairing of “Under Fixed Stars” and “Around the Axis,” Chasny seems to bask in the brightness he’s creating, such that “Adoration Song” and “Under Fixed Stars” exude patience bordering on the meditative; an aural stop for rose-smelling, maybe. Like the best of his work and others still to come here as well, these songs are progressive and affecting as well, familiar and strikingly new, and as the bouncing bassline of “Around the Axis” fills the space beneath the acoustic guitar with a tonal warmth not to be understated, Six Organs of Admittance sounds very much like a project come home to find its footing.

Such evocation is nothing new for Chasny, and I’ll allow my interpretation could be way off — certainly happened before — but even as the buzz of “Taken by Ascent” pushes outward into a standout hook with Chasny joined on vocals by Hayley Fohr, Chris Corsano on drums and Cooper Crain, breaking at almost exactly its midpoint and moving into a smooth instrumental psych-jam (again, the low end resonates), there seems to be a search for serenity happening. That continues as “Threshold of Light,” which is as close as we get to a title-track here, picks up with its swirling vocal effects and more earthbound acoustic figure, both vaguely ritualized. The second half of “Taken by Ascent” is hypnotic enough that just about any transition away from it would be jarring, but “Threshold of Light” presents a calm psychedelic folk, with vocals playing forward lines off chants and repetition that underscore a spiritual sensibility. If this indeed is the threshold that’s burning, one is left to wonder why as the keyboard flourish arrives late in a kind of soothing revelation, but not having it explained outright seems to fit with the notion the album originally proffered: it’s things as they are.

A resurgent bounce in the finger-plucked instrumental “St. Eustace” makes that track the third in a pastoral trilogy — arranged from shortest to longest — with “Reservoir” and “Around the Axis,” while the title references the Roman saint whose trials included the loss of his children to wolves and lions and being burned alive in a bronze statue. Hardly as uplifting as the redemption one hears in Chasny‘s guitar, but the closer, “Reflection” keeps to the theme in pleading, “Please, please peace,” amid repetitions of “Dull, abstract aching…” and so on atop wistful lines of acoustic strum and airy electrified notes. If one looks at Burning the Threshold as two vinyl sides with the split occurring between “Around the Axis” and “Taken by Ascent” — the latter leading off side B — then the second half seems to dig into more personal territory compared to “Things as They Are,” which is a more external parable. This progression toward inner emotionalism gives Six Organs of Admittance‘s latest a linear trajectory despite how far-out it goes in terms of sound, and the intimacy and depth of communication that emerges from it is perhaps what ties Burning the Threshold most to the body of Chasny‘s formidable catalog, to which these songs are a welcome addition.

Six Organs of Admittance, Burning the Threshold (2017)

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