Ben Chasny came into his own on 2005's School
Of The Flower,
a disc that crystallized his psychedelic Six Organs Of Admittance. But he trod
water on last year's Sun Awakens, and he continues to do so on the new Shelter
From The Ash.
As usual, Chasny's Robbie Basho-like ragas take center stage, but his
gravel-on-velvet voice haunts the metaphysically dour "Strangled Road," and he
thickens his modal mysticism with the Mahavishnu Orchestra-meets-Crazy Horse
eruption of "Alone With The Alone." It's ironic that Drag City's own reissue of
Red Hash—the
1973 album by obscure folkie Gary Higgins, whom Chasny covered on Flower—has rendered most
of Chasny's subsequent output a bit redundant. Still, Shelter bleeds enough drone and
bliss to make a pretty smear of reality.