Since releasing their Divides demo in 2004, Across Tundras have worked intensely and at a prolific clip to translate the spirit of open-spaced Americana into heavy and often psychedelic rock. It’s a stylistic turn the influence of which is beginning to be felt in newcomer acts even now, and Across Tundras are by no means resting on the laurels of their early work. After issuing Sage (review here) through Neurot in 2011, guitarist/vocalist Tanner Olson formed an imprint called Electric Relics, and this year the band released an album of the same name (review here), as well as a split with Lark’s Tongue (streamed here). Olson has also set about amassing a considerable solo catalog, performing under the moniker T.G. Olson and recording experimental and folk material at Ramble Hill Farm outside of Nashville, Tennessee, at a rate such that in between sending him the questionnaire and getting back his answers, his November release, The Bad Lands to Cross (discussed here), already had a December companion in Hell’s Half Acre.

Olson‘s strong connections to land and memory come through in his answers below. Please enjoy:

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Tanner Olson

How did you come to do what you do?

As far back as my memory goes I can only remember being concerned with music and playing outdoors. Not much has changed. I was singing along to The Eagles’ “Take it Easy” by three years old and getting a good laugh out of my family. My brother Dusty and I would spend our evenings calling the local radio station and requesting songs, then dubbing them to tape when they came on. I could care less about people “stealing” music online because that is how we got our music education back in the early ’80s living in rural South Dakota. We memorized every song we could get our ears on and pretty soon that inspiration led to writing our own tunes and it has never stopped. Songs are so much more than money and the entitled egos the drive for cash spawns. If people want it they should have it to feed their souls. If someone has a few bucks to throw down or come out to see a show and buy merch that is amazing, but not required. The more I disassociate from the “business” the happier I am. Music has been a constant and always evolving journey in life. It is inherent in every one of us and a universal language.

Describe your first musical memory.

So many! The few that really stick out though was my Dad singing John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane” when he would go to work and my Mom singing “You are My Sunshine” every morning when I woke up. My first real concert at 10 years old was KISS, Faster Pussycat, and Slaughter on the “Hot in the Shade” tour with my aunt Nancy. She bought me a Faster Pussycat “Wake Me When it’s Fucking Over” t-shirt that my Mom was not thrilled about! That is still a badass record.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

This is like answering favorite album of all time. I just can’t do it. Every single experience has shaped me and led me down the path to where I stand today. There have been many amazing times and many horrible times. They don’t exist without each other. I will say that growing up in the Midwest scene from the early ’90s until the new millennium was an incredible experience. Full of passionate people working together and for one another without pretense. Good things don’t last forever though. There was a really strong sense of community and support that is severely lacking in these ultra-competitive times.

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

There was a time when I got so wrapped trying to “make it” as a musician that my ego and expectations took a stronger hold than my heart. I never intended to go down that path, but somehow I lost sight of what was really important. Many are under this spell and for some reason something that can be as pure as music and as destructive as ego often goes hand in hand. It threatened to ruin one of the most positive and constant things in my life. I came to resent music and blamed it for my money and girl problems. I had a selfish and entitled attitude that brought a lot of anger and frustration when things didn’t go as planned. Letting go of that poisonous mindset has been a revelation and a rebirth to a completely pure form of expression and restored simple happiness.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

Freedom. Being open to constantly learning and unafraid to keep moving ahead without letting shallow ideas influence you brings one back to where it all began. Creating from your heart and progression are one in the same to me. We are born with this and our society tries to teach us to lose it.

How do you define success?

Just being alive in this crazy world is like a dream sometimes. Having the ability to simply create and be a part of the giant circle is a blessing and the ultimate success. Being able to do things on your own terms and staying true to that vision. Everything that comes beyond is just icing on the cake. I don’t just mean writing a good song, either. It could be having a baby or growing a garden or a million other things.  Putting hard work into of something and giving it life which can grow and grow and on and on…

What is something you have seen you wish you hadn’t?

The destruction of our environment by government and corporate interests makes me sick to my stomach. Witnessing the shift from the old ways to the modern technological age is a heavy concept and makes for a very chaotic time to be alive. I am not an absolutist and see the good in certain new ideas. But I am also very alarmed at how much certain forms of new technology are destroying the tried and true along with the very air we breathe, water we drink, and ground we walk on. There is nothing sustainable about this current situation and I already see it starting to slowly crumble. Something has to give and I truly believe we will correct our mistakes or die trying.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

It is a goal to do a real deal soundtrack for a full-length feature film. The kind of stuff Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are doing would be incredible. No one has come knocking yet, but I think it will happen someday and I can’t wait to get a foot in that door. In the meantime I took matters into my own hands and scored the Blood Meridian book to hold me over.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Writings books is next up on the agenda. I have so many ideas and concepts in place that just need some time dedicated to putting them on paper. The first is going to be a hybrid non-fiction/fiction about the Gitchie Manitou murders that happened right outside my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, back in 1973. I won’t go into the details and will let you look it up on Wiki instead, haha. We used to go this spot in the middle of the night growing up. The dark history of the place hangs thick in the air to this day and should make for a pretty interesting read.

T.G. Olson, Hell’s Half Acre (Dec. 2013)

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

T.G. Olson/Across Tundras on Bandcamp

Click Here to Download

[mp3player width=480 height=175 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=aot29.xml]

Been a while, right? Tell me about it. Although I love, love having The Obelisk Radio streaming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I’ve been wanting to bring back podcasting for a while now. I always thought it was fun, it just got to be time consuming and to be perfectly honest, the response over time took something of a shit.

Well, the idea here is to start with a clean slate. Anyone who’s listened to audiObelisk podcasts before will notice this one doesn’t have a title. There’s no theme running throughout — though I wanted to keep it focused on new stuff as much as possible — and though others ranged upwards of four hours long, this one clocks in at just under two. I gave myself some pretty specific limits and wanted to start off as basic and foundational as possible. I haven’t done this in a long time, and it seemed only appropriate to treat it like a new beginning.

Something else I’m keeping simple is the intro, so with that said, I hope like hell you download at the link above or stream it on the player and enjoy the selections. Here’s the rundown of what’s included:

First Hour:

Mystery Ship, “Paleodaze” from EP II (2013)
Carousel, “On My Way” from Jeweler’s Daughter (2013)
Ice Dragon, “The Deeper You Go” from Born a Heavy Morning (2013)
Black Mare, “Tearer” from Field of the Host (2013)
Beast in the Field, “Hollow Horn” from The Sacred Above, The Sacred Below (2013)
11 Paranoias, “Reaper’s Ruin” from Superunnatural (2013)
Vàli, “Gjemt Under Grener” from Skoglandskap (2013)
Beelzefuzz, “Lonely Creatures” from Beelzefuzz (2013)
Dozer, “The Blood is Cold” fromVultures (2013)
Toby Wrecker, “Belle” from Sounds of Jura (2013)
Shroud Eater, “Sudden Plague” from Dead Ends (2013)
Luder, “Ask the Sky” from Adelphophagia (2013)
Eggnogg, “The Once-ler” from Louis (2012)

Second Hour:

Colour Haze, “Grace” from She Said (2012)
Borracho, “Know the Score” from Oculus (2013)
The Flying Eyes, “Raise Hell” from Split with Golden Animals (2013)
Demon Lung, “Heathen Child” from The Hundredth Name (2013)
Vista Chino, “As You Wish” from Peace (2013)
Across Tundras, “Pining for the Gravel Roads” from Electric Relics (2013)
Black Pyramid, “Aphelion” from Adversarial (2013)
Church of Misery, “Cranley Gardens (Dennis Andrew Nilsen)” from Thy Kingdom Scum (2013)

Total running time: 1:57:54

Thanks for listening.

Download audiObelisk Transmission 029

Much of the tone for Electric Relics — which is upwards of Across Tundras‘ ninth full-length, the prolific trio now based in Nashville, Tennessee, and releasing music through their own Electric Relics imprint — is set by the six-minute opening track, “Pining for the Gravel Roads.” Amid one of the record’s catchiest musical progressions, guitarist/vocalist Tanner Olson repeats the resonant titular line, “Lately I’ve been pining for the gravel roads/Of my childhood home,” and thus provides a de facto summary not only of the perspective from which Electric Relics draws stylistic and thematic base, but also of the greater crux of Olson‘s work with Across Tundras. It’s as though he distilled the entire catalog of LPs, EPs, splits, solo-projects and the rest to a single lyric, and if it’s a bit of self-reflection from the band — the lineup of the trio completed by bassist/vocalist Mikey Allred (also synth, Mellotron, trombone) and drummer Casey Perry — it’s accompanied by a corresponding self-reliance. In addition to releasing the 180 gram gatefold vinyl themselves, Olson and Allred also helmed the recording, and Perry built and photographed the model for the album’s cover, and their know-how is no less prevalent in terms of their songwriting and aesthetic than it is in the practicalities of pressing and releasing. Nearly a decade on from getting together, Across Tundras have constructed a niche almost entirely their own of Americana-infused heavy psychedelic rock, richly ambient and reliant particularly in the case of Electric Relics on a pervasive sense of open space within the material. That’s true of the wistful, tonally-weighted sway enacted by “Pining for the Gravel Roads” and remains the uniting factor of the otherwise deeply varied work through to the Spaghetti Western gallop that closes the side B finale “Unfortunate Son.” Whatever they want to do with their sound, they’ve got the process down at this point and they know how to tie it together for a full-length flow. In just under 41 minutes, Electric Relics engages a flurry of ideals, both idolizing an unknowable past and seeking to create something whole and new from it.

Second track “Den of Poison Snakes” continues and refines some of the more memorable aspects of the opener, working at a slightly faster pace and keeping a straightforward structure centered around its chorus, “I guess that’s the chance you take/No one ever gets out alive/From the den of poison snakes/From the den of poison snakes,” while adding crunch in Olson‘s guitar not quite as hefty as “Crux to Bear” from their 2013 split with Lark‘s Tongue (streaming here) but certainly thick enough to give anything from 2011’s Sage (review here) a run for its money. Still, there’s a folksy feel to the proceedings, because although Perry‘s crashing, stomping drums are such a factor in highlighting the groove throughout Electric Relics, the echoing space with which they’re presented production-wise does nothing to take away from the reflective mood, and as the album plays out, Olson‘s vocals touch on Bob Dylan on “Castaway” and Allred adds organ to the winding acoustic/electric progression of “Driftless Caravan,” so there’s plenty of sonic diversity to at work anyhow. Two well-placed interludes — “Kiln of the First Flame” and “Seasick Serenade” — underscore just how much Across Tundras have going on at any given moment, the first of them following “Den of Poison Snakes” with a sub-drone instrumental built around sustained guitar strums and punctuating cymbal hits, gradually joined by the bass as a sense of movement emerges from the wash. I’m not sure if it ends side A or begins side B, but “Seasick Serenade” follows “Driftless Caravan” — which begins with what seems like a rush after the hypnotic earthy psychedelia of “Kiln of the First Flame” — but similar to the let’s-all-take-a-breath-before-we-keep-going effect that some of early Sabbath‘s acoustic interludes had, “Seasick Serenade” bases itself around a relatively simple 90-second aside the melody of which becomes deceptively familiar. Going from a linear (digital) format, it works equally well in following “Driftless Caravan” as it does introducing “Castaway,” the smoothness of transitions within the songs mirrored by that between them.

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In addition to the launch of a new album, Across Tundras also mark the launch of a new label with the forthcoming/already-out Electric Relics. The Nashville harvest rockers have made the full-length available for streaming via their Bandcamp page (which is, as I recently discovered, something of a treasure trove) and will issue it on 180 gram vinyl next month as the first release on their new label, also called Electric Relics.

The last Across Tundras album was 2011’s Sage (review here), which was released by Neurot, and in March, the band also released a split with like-minded Illinois outfit Lark’s Tongue (streaming here). Here’s news and the stream of the latest:

ACROSS TUNDRAS To Release New LP On Band’s Own Label

Western U.S. Tour With Hellbender Confirmed

Following their lauded Sage album, released in 2011 by Neurot Recordings, the new LP from Nashville trio ACROSS TUNDRAS is set for harvest on the band’s newly founded D.I.Y. label.

On the new LP Electric Relics, ACROSS TUNDRAS take their ever-expanding style of modern Americana further into the same westerly direction they’ve been traversing for the past few years, organically fusing their swells of post-doom into Spaghetti Western soundtracks and meandering blues/rock jam sessions. A wide variety of sounds seamlessly mingle throughout the slow motion base founding guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tanner Olson, percussionist Casey Perry and bassist/vocalist Mikey Allred (Hellbender) lay down, Allred also contributing pianos/organs, synthesizers, mellotron, trombone and more, and his brother Joey (Hellbender) contributing guest slide guitar and vocals. Additionally, Perry hand constructed the scale model landscape for the cover art, with Olson handling the graphic design and layout. ACROSS TUNDRAS recorded Electric Relics at their expansive Ramble Hill Farm in February, and is releasing it on their own label of the same name, making it a fully self-managed D.I.Y. release.

As the band states: “Electric Relics is our humble offering placed at the crossroads of past, present, and future tense. Age-old energies and three phase electric power intersect to reveal hidden truths of bygone times, modern mysticisms, and sound the alarm for uncertain days to come. We walk through this shadowy land in search of a spark to light the fire and illuminate the depths of consciousness.”

Electric Relics is available for free/name-your-price download now via Bandcamp, where orders for the deluxe vinyl edition — being pressed on 180-gram virgin vinyl and bearing gatefold jackets — can also be placed.

In support of the album, ACROSS TUNDRAS are hooking up with their cohorts in Hellbender for a Western U.S. tour, kicking off with a hometown show on June 6th and winding out through the West Coast and back through the Midwestern states.

ACROSS TUNDRAS Western USA Tour w/ Hellbender:
6/06 The Groove – Nashville, TN
6/07 3 Angels – Memphis, TN w/ Tanks
6/08 The Conservatory – Oklahoma, City, OK w/ We the Undead
6/09 Synchro Studios – Albuquerque, NM w/ Shiva
6/10 The District – Tucson, AZ w/ Psygoat
6/11 Palo Verde – Phoenix, AZ w/ Sorxe
6/12 Five Star Bar – Los Angeles, CA w/ The Withers, Arms of Tripoli
6/13 Thee Parkside – San Francisco, CA w/ Name
6/14 Casa Da Chaos – Sacramento, CA
6/15 Herb Stomp – Portland, OR w/ Rolling Through the Universe, Hungers
6/16 Highline – Seattle, WA w/ Lightning Kills Eagle, Scriptures
6/17 Tiny Tavern – Eugene, OR w/ Rivers of Mercury, Opossum Head
6/18 TBA/HELP – Northern CA
6/19 Jub Jubs – Reno, NV
6/20 Bar Deluxe – Salt Lake City, UT w/ Before the Eyewall, Dwellers
6/21 TBA/HELP – Denver, CO
6/22 The Lulu House – Wichita, KS w/ Serpent Overlord

Electric Relics Track Listing:
1. Pining for the Gravel Roads
2. Den of Poison Snakes
3. Kiln of the First Flame
4. Driftless Caravan
5. Seasick Serenade
6. Castaway
7. Solar Ark
8. Unfortunate Son

ACROSS TUNDRAS:
Tanner Olson – guitars, vocals, drones, lyrics
Casey Perry – drums, percussion
Mikey Allred – bass, vocals, piano, organ, synthesizers, mellotron, trombone
Joey Allred – slide guitar on “Solar Ark”, vocals on “Unfortunate Son”

http://www.acrosstundras.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ACROSS-TUNDRAS/67862323857
http://acrosstundras.blogspot.com
http://acrosstundras.bigcartel.com

Across Tundras, Electric Relics (2013)

I bumped into T.G. Olson‘s The Complete Blood Meridian for Electric Drone Guitar 6CD set the way someone might bump into a mountain. I was in the process of putting together the recent stream of the Across Tundras/Lark’s Tongue split, and found it on the Across Tundras Bandcamp page, just waiting for me. And I say it was “waiting for me,” because who else could it possibly have been waiting for? Six CDs in a hand-bound book complete with two prints, a page cut out of a Navajo history (that’s on back of the red design, above), and a copy of an 1850s pamphlet from the US government on Indian activity. For $25? Shit. I couldn’t order it fast enough.

It is, as advertised, a complete soundtrack to Cormac McCarthy‘s ultraviolent and classic 1985 novel, Blood Meridian, scored on guitar by T.G. Olson of Across Tundras. Throughout most of the 233-minute (that’s three hours and 53 minutes) release, it is indeed just Olson‘s guitar, plucking out distorted Westernisms in fittingly sparse fashion, but there are flourishes of activity here and there, earlier on some drums and synth and samples, later, a flourishing sense of foreboding that comes to a head in a wash before the included “Epilogue” piece rounds the work out. There are notes, resonant melody, but never songs so much as movements of a whole work, some fading in and out, some ending cold.

Would be inappropriate to say the physical product is as fascinating as the music — because as much as there is going on with the packaging, it’s not a nigh-on-four-hour thematic run through a brilliant piece of literature — so I’ll stop short of that and just note the obvious time and effort that went into it. Both prints are handmade, as is the art on the CD book itself, which opens to pages of collage images and print imagery. There are 12 pages in all, three discs in backwards, designed on sleeves, positioned on the right side of the first half, the left side of the second, with an image in the center of houses carved into a mountain cut in half by the rope binding the whole thing together. Mine got roughed up some during shipping, but a bent corner only adds character in this context.

The level of detail extends to the music. It would have to for a project like this not to completely fall flat — which I’m happy to say The Complete Blood Meridian for Electric Drone Guitar doesn’t. Still, one might think that after the first five discs, Olson might phone in a drone or two, but in keeping with McCarthy‘s writing style, the guitar follows a path that’s almost lush in its minimalism, creating a wide open expanse that makes you feel small, threatened and helpless even as you keep wanting to go further into the kid’s story, the Glanton gang, the scalping, on and on into this swirl of purely American senseless destruction that’s our history as much as it’s what we want to watch on our televisions in the evening. If you’ve never read the book, do that.

As for me, it’s been a while, and I might just have to revisit Blood Meridian with Olson‘s score accompanying to see how it matches up. He recorded live, improv late in 2012 and early in 2013 and is only doing 100 on CDR (also 50 on four cassettes), so if you want to get in on the physical version, time’s probably short. The download is a whopping five dollars, which if I’ve got my math right, means you get 2,796 seconds of audio for each dollar you spend. Just in case you want to check it out, here’s the Bandcamp stream:

T.G. Olson, The Complete Blood Meridian for Electric Drone Guitar

T.G. Olson: The Complete Blood Meridian for Electric Drone Guitar on Bandcamp

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

Beginning with a welcoming rush of psychedelic cymbal wash and airy notes, the new split LP from harvest rock forerunners Across Tundras and similarly-minded Midwestern outfit Lark’s Tongue sets its sights immediately on the signature blend between the earthy and the ethereal that runs a current through both acts’ contributions. Due April 20 on Cavity Records, it features two tracks from each artist — a longer one, followed by a shorter one — and runs a total of just over 32 minutes of sometimes lush, sometimes sparse Americana-infused heavy psychedelic songwriting.

For Across Tundras, who made their Neurot Recordings debut in 2011 with Sage (review here) after a slew of other LPs and solo offerings from guitarist/vocalist Tanner Olson, this split marks their first studio material since and a precursor to 2013’s forthcoming Electric Nostalgia full-length. The Peoria, Illinois, five-piece Lark’s Tongue boast members of Minsk in their lineup — Chris Bennett and Jeff Hyde — and have released a 7″ and split 12″ with Men of Fortune on their Bird Dialect imprint. Both acts show an allegiance to Earth‘s prairie drone, but each with a somewhat different take that complements the other while maintaining a consistent spaciousness in the music.

That aspect shows up in much of Across Tundras‘ work, which casts off much of the oppressiveness of modern post-heavy in favor of traditional-sounding stomp that somehow sounds modern and like it might also be best presented at 78RPMs. Their two tracks here, “Low Haunts” and “Crux to Bear” are a fitting answer to the stomp and drawl of Sage, with Olson‘s invocations met by a rolling Appalachia of groove fostered by Mikey Allred and Casey Perry as the first unfolds following its initial wash and offsets a thicker intro on “Crux to Bear” with more uptempo swagger and a sense of the song consuming itself in its second half that nonetheless retains the structure a final verse provides.

This is my first exposure to Lark’s Tongue, whose lineup is completed by Nate Lucas, Jon Wright and Andrew Sledd, but especially put in the context of the two Across Tundras tracks, their own contributions make an immediately favorable impression, fleshing out some of the same sonic ideas with memorable choruses in both “Follow Your Nightmares” and “Aluminum” and a strong sense of purpose and aesthetic. “Follow Your Nightmares” takes off on an irresistible thrust but proves not so simple as a follow-the-riff excursion might initially seem, pop meeting with weighted low end and post-rock echoes, even as “Aluminum” seems geared toward an emotional warmth the humanity of which stands in contradiction to its title, its melody both infectious and striking when put to the deceptively heavy guitars and winding effects.

Both bands were kind enough to allow their material to be hosted for streaming ahead of the release and to add some commentary about their tracks, which you can find under the player below. Please enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=250 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=across-tundras-larks-tongue.xml]

The Across Tundras/Lark’s Tongue split LP will be released April 20 on Cavity Records. More info available at the label’s website.

From Lark’s Tongue:

This is our third release, following our 7” and split 12” with Men of Fortune released in 2012 on Bird Dialect. “Aluminum” is a relatively newer song, while “Follow Your Nightmares” has been kicking around since the beginning of the band in 2010.

“Nightmares” is a meditation of sorts on how we face our fears. It’s a journey for sure. “Aluminum” is aimed at a faraway place, at the resolution of that conundrum.

Unleashing this fearsome Janus upon the faithful, singing hymns to the eye of the storm, we herald the triumph of passion and amplification. The finest dream is a siren song to suffer, illuminating the pathways where fear and bliss become one. What starts with pleasure endures in alarm, and only your eyes can look straight at the sun.

From Across Tundras:

These are our first proper studio recordings since “Sage” was released on Neurot in 2011. In the time since we toured the USA up and down a few times and rehearsed non-stop at our Ramble Hill Farm stronghold in the hills Northwest of Nashville, TN. The hard work paid off and yielded these two massive tracks and a new full length record we are currently finishing up as we speak.

“Low Haunts” is a trial by hellfire, and coming out on the green mountainside. “Crux to Bear” is owning and disowning the bonds of blood and history.

Echoes of the past and distant rumblings of the future. Truth be told.

Across Tundras on Thee Facebooks

Lark’s Tongue on Thee Facebooks

Prolific and with a multi-faceted sonic approach steeped in wide-open Americana and new-school intellectualist metal crunch, Nashville, Tennessee, trio Across Tundras make their Neurot Recordings debut with Sage. It’s the band’s seventh full-length since they got together in 2004, and it has a naturalist, organic edge to it, with clear separation between the guitar, bass, vocals and drums, and a cohesive full-album flow that offsets its prairie licks with heavy rhythms and Sabbathian bass runs from “Big Jim” Shively. Shively’s tone and playing are consistent highlights throughout Sage, starting with Spaghetti Western opener “In the Name of River Grand,” which lays out much of the dustbowl romanticism Across Tundras have on offer with the record. Their songwriting varies from the straightforward to the avant, and their greatest achievement with Sage might be keeping themselves from losing the wagon-wheels when it comes to structuring the tracks. “Hijo de Desierto,” just more than half the length of the opener at 4:56, is built around a strong, memorable chorus and even as it decays into a darkly psychedelic fever dream, it keeps that chorus going as a way to ground the listener in the experience, showing both maturity and structural prowess on Across Tundras’ part.

Guitarist/vocalist Tanner Olson – Shively also contributes backing vocals, as does drummer Nathan Rose – ranges from shouts to the sub-country croon of “Buried Arrows,” on which fellow Nashville resident Lilly Hiatt (of Lilly Hiatt and the Dropped Ponies) guests in classic Grand Ol’ Opry duet fashion. “Buried Arrows” is probably the best vocal performance on Sage, despite the lyrics seeming somewhat contrived with generic images of hitching down hard roads, days of the buffalo, high desert land, etc., and Olson’s guitar displays a suitable twang to match, underscored by Rose’s subtle floor tom rhythm, evoking at once a Native American tradition and the weighted low end that typifies so much modern doom. Shively’s bass is once again gorgeously crisp, but it’s on the more open centerpiece cut “The Book of Truth” that he really shines, filling the empty spaces between guitar stops and laying the foundational groove on which the track is built. He’s not overly flashy in his playing, not showing off or anything like that, but if I was sitting with a friend talking about the new Across Tundras record – and of course I’d have to specify Sage, since it probably won’t be all that long before the next one is out – the first thing I’d say is that the bass makes the album. That’s not to take away from what either Olson or Rose contribute to the band, it’s a trio, so every member is essential to the whole, just that a killer bass tone isn’t something that comes easily or often, so the Geezer Butler runs at the end of “The Book of Truth” are worth appreciating double.

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Good for them. I wasn’t a huge fan of Western Sky Ride, but I liked their debut, and they’ve apparently put out no fewer than five records in the last three years, so what the hell. Way to go, Across Tundras. May it be a long and fruitful relationship between you and Neurot Recordings, and may your first child be a masculine child (I’m on a Godfather kick lately). Here’s looking forward to whatever comes next.

The PR wire has this:

Creating unique moonshine-soaked organic rock in the hills of Tennessee, Across Tundras seamlessly meld classic rock, folk, country, psychedelia, and doom into an original, organic style of rock that defies classification and bleeds true Americana. In true nomadic style Across Tundras have previously set-up camp on multiple labels including Crucial Blast and Forgotten Empire, have now found a home with Neurot Recordings.

Stated Neurot/Neurosis‘ Steve Von Till on the signing: “It is with great honor that Neurot Recordings welcomes Across Tundras to our home. Their past releases have shown immense dedication to spirit and commitment to growth and sonic evolution. Those are traits that we admire and look for when declaring kinship among those also on the quest for emotional release through sound.”

Across Tundras‘ Tanner Olson this week also made a statement on their induction into Neurot‘s family: “The opportunity to stand alongside such a talented and driven group of artists and musicians is something we have been working along time for. Neurot Recordings releases the most inspired and original music out there, and its a huge compliment that they see us as kindred musical spirits. Eternal gratitude to the Neurot family for believing in us and giving a proper home to our nomadic sounds.”

More details on the recently completed new Across Tundras album will be announced shortly. Stay tuned for tour announcements and more through the coming months as well.