Om: Advaitic Songs (2LP) [DRAG CITY]

Why you'll love it

This Drag City 2LP set is cut at 45 RPM with a large lyric insert, the first time Om pressed a deluxe audiophile vinyl version. Al Cisneros and Emil Amos fold cello, viola, tabla and tamboura into their meditative bass-and-drums drone.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Cut at 45 RPM
• Lyric insert

About the album

Two people, a Rickenbacker bass and a drum kit shouldn't add up to anything this vast, yet Om keep making it work. Al Cisneros, the bass player and voice of doom pioneers Sleep, and drummer Emil Amos built Advaitic Songs from slow, circling riffs and chanted vocals, with nothing but Ampeg amps and Rickenbacker basses on the low end.

This time they invited company. Kate Ramsey sings on "Addis," Jackie Perez Gratz plays cello, Jory Fankuchen adds viola and violin, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe brings extra vocals and tamboura, and Lorraine Rath's flute and Hom Nath Upadhyaya's tabla colour the closing "Haqq Al-Yaqin." Jay Pellicci recorded it, with Steve Albini among the extra engineers, and "State Of Non-Return" and "Sinai" ride some of the band's heaviest grooves.

David V. D'Andrea's cover returns to Christian iconography, this time John the Baptist, as Pilgrimage and God Is Good did before it. It arrived in July 2012, with a cassette version following a year later. Five long pieces over four sides at 45 RPM means plenty of getting up to turn the record over, which we've decided to count as part of the meditation.

Also at Kops: more Om on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On Drag City (cat# DC438), the 2012 album.