The Sun Awakens

Unlike so many hippie-come-latelies who were fronting failed electroclash bands just a few years ago and will surely move on to the next trend and cut off their hair next month, Ben Chasny AKA Six Organs of Admittance has been making heavy, awesome, droning psychedelic folk-rock since the mid \'90s, for no reason other than that he *has* to; he\'s obsessed with this stuff. Tired of saving up and sending away for collectable psychedelic LPs that never seemed to live up their hype, he started making meditative psychedelic folk albums on his own that mix and match elements of avant post-punk, sun-baked folk and visionary hippie folk. In the meantime, he\'s played in the righteous stoner jam freakout band Comets on Fire and with David Tibet\'s restrained and dark ambient folk act Current 93. *The Sun Awakens* is the most layered and realized studio album Chasny\'s yet made, and the first where his vocal style can be said to add rather than detract. It\'s thick, occasionally very pretty, and references any number of musicians from John Fahey and Popol Vuh to Ennio Morricone. Speaking of soundtrack composers, someone should get this guy a major film to write the score for, and quick.

Like a life cycle, but without the boring bits. As this Sun rises, it alternates between searing your skin and soothing the wounds it's made. Only Ben Chasny, guitar in hand, can decide which fate is yours at any given moment.

Ben Chasny's eighth album under the Six Organs tag, expertly recorded by the Fucking Champs' Tim Green, is more subtly layered and focused than its predecessors.

Ben Chasny's membership in certain bands such as Comets On Fire, and now his touring and recording efforts with Current 93 (his contributions to the latter's Black Ships Ate the Sky made it stand head and shoulders over any studio recording they've released) have certainly influenced his main project, Six Organs of Admittance.