Six Organs Of Admittance - Shelter From The Ash

Turn your nose up all you want, but the reality is that the underground jam rock scene has some pretty intense bands working the country these days and several of these new weird Americans also bash out some novel side projects as well.
To be fair, Comets On Fire’s Ben Chasny has been working the Six Organs of Admittance nameplate longer than he has been a member of C.O.F. At the same time, I wouldn’t have even recognized Chasny’s original project if it weren’t for his work with Comets, but I’ll come right out an tell you that I’m enjoying Shelter From The Ash a helluva lot more than Avatar.
The two offerings are light years apart, with Shelter sounding like a lost relic of raga-fueled guitarwork, heavy on acoustic riffing and on occasion busting out a few moments of scrambled egg freakouts. It’s a guitar lover’s record, and only for those who can appreciate the sprawling tendencies that jam bands tend to offer.
Make no mistake however, this is not the work of a fanatical Garcia or Anastasio follower. Ben Chasny instead follows a Middle Easter pattern, occasionally nodding to Sun City Girls’ Rick Bishop and British folk legend Davy Graham. There’s also a heavy amount of wah-wah action, giving Shelter that late 60’s/early 70’s trip, confounding the listener into believing that they’ve stumbled into a lost relic, fetching an ungodly price on EBay from a few devoted followers.
With such six string theatrics, lyrics and vocals take a backseat to anything that can be picked, strummed, or strangled. When they do appear, it’s a tentative affair, occasionally beautiful (particularly the ones Elisa Ambrogio collaborates on) but hardly memorable.
So chalk it up as a guitar album with enough fingerpickin’ exercises good enough to maintain the attention span of any pothead. Shelter From The Ash is one of those albums that will go overlooked by many while becoming a welcome find to anyone that stumbles onto its six-string theatrics.