6MAJIK9 - WEAPONS AND MAPS OF WESTERN DESPONDENCY (CD-R by Pseudo Arcana)I have no clue who is behind this rather odd named project - apparently it'sa whole load of people with guitars, percussion, flutes, cello, Theremin,voice, organ and what not. The first track is just a short intro that isover before you really notice it. Things really get going with the secondtrack that starts out as an intense excursion into straight, high-energydrumming with a heavy droning background and about half way through changesinto the free-form psychedelia mode that prevails throughout the rest of thealbum. 6majik9 offer fascinatingly tight woven layers from myriads ofacoustic particles, stretched out into long waves or condensed intoflickering, sometimes amorphously flowing, sometimes held together by aloose, driving rhythm, and always with that special lo-fi grittiness, thatintensifies the sound by giving it a sort of muddy saturation. All thisculminates in the last piece, a slow droning 14 minute epic, that sets outall quiet and gradually builds up subliminal tension but never really eruptsinto a cathartic blast. On the one hand it's a pity that this release israther short (just under 40 minutes, while I'd bet that they have hours andhours of jams in their archive), but on the other hand this is maybe one ofthe strongest point about it. Instead of a disc crammed full with materialyou get a nice selection with enough variation and tension. Good one. (MSS)http://vitalweekly.net/557.html