Album Details

• Artist: Rhyton
• Album: Rhyton
• Label: Thrill Jockey
• Year of Release: 2012
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2012-02-26

This trio from the cement canvases and cathedrals of Brooklyn sure know their wide open spaces. Rhyton's self-titled debut is fat with long fuzzy chords, funk grooves and psychedelic epics that is sonically one of the most satisfying releases in a long time. This is cathartic and balls-out fun.

The opener, "Stone Colored" is a psych guitar meets minutemen rhythm section; hypnotic, increasingly abrasive space jam. Next, "Pontian Grave" offers 12 minutes of epic guitar freakout, and solidifies Dave Shuford as six-string genius of inspired proportions.

"Teké "echoes with a mix of late 60s Floyd and Eastern rhythms; again, for a long track-this one at just over ten minutes-there is no wasted noodling or repetition of ideas. This is powerful, distorted minimalism that explores each note as if it were the most important discovery of their lives. Drummer Spencer Herbst and bassist Jimy SeiTang, as they do throughout the record, both anchor the sound and provide creative seemingly improvisational cues as well.

While "Dale Odalíski" is a disappointingly generic ambient outing, the closer, "Shank Raids" mixes the band's now signature space-raga with a good old 70s boogie groove for a massive and danceable sound.

If having your head knocked off is meditative, this is the soundtrack. Rhyton's brilliant debut is only available in 500 copies of vinyl and 200 hand-made CDs,, though there is a download coupon available with the LP. It is hard to call this anything less than visionary.

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