A Beautiful Head In Five Movements
Mourning Dew Of The Fallen Leaf
Oceans Wreathed In Flame
Lair Of The Funeral Witch
Caravan Of Ghosts
Drained Essence

Ruhr Hunter’s, Chet W. Scott and guitarist James Woodhead have combined their talents to produce an unusual offering on the Glass Throat Recordings label, The Elemental Chrysalis is without doubt one of the most folkish and instrumental albums to feature.

Dueling guitars initiate the psychedelic venture of "The Calocybe Collection", an odd classical duet backed with piano performed with attention to detail that would impress any guitar afficiando. From there, however, the world turns askew as the hallucinations take hold with the fine of the performance as kaleidoscoping bellows pump odd shaped sounds to a yawning sitar. Droning ambience breaks the fungal feast into funereal company buoyed by deathly organ and disarming presence of songbird before guitars snap the grave from your mind. Guitar continues to feature prominently as does keyboard and organ, which hints of the twisted carnival of Cintecele Diavolui, and overall the effect remains hypnotic and oneiric. Yet don’t let the ‘shrooms fool you into thinking this is some castaway faeries-in-the-forest album, the dark undertones pinch reality into the experience and the instrumentation is lush. If at all you enjoy Ruhr Hunter you won’t go wrong with this side-project. The use of whispered vocals and throat singing slips easily into the warped unease of the music and is perhaps the first use of notable vocals in any Glass Throat Recordings release. At an impressive seventy-five minutes there is vista aplenty for the non-drug inclined and drug inclined to trip to.

Presented in a lush 6” x 6” card gatefold of six panels, Glass Throat Recordings continues their trend established with their previous catalogue release, Beneath the Lake - "Silent Uprising" [read review here]. Not only is the package unique in shape but the design and print is of a high quality. James Woodhead’s illustration features throughout the three inside panels, an illustrative forest of mushrooms, which may have you thinking of the cult classic film, "Matango".

NYR