VALLEY OF ASHES - Cavehill Hunters Attrition

"In todays scene of hippy dippy two bit mystic miasmas and self-appointed avatars hung up high on hollow Shangri-La noose-notion-poses, one who plays psychedelic music is hesitant when choosing adjectives. Utter the term freak folk and Vallley Of Ashes might cut yr face. Approach with candor and they might peel back their own skulls and open their minds to you plain and simple -- straight from the gut. Cavehill Hunters Attrition is a sprawling triple LP collection that channels a huge spectrum yet maintains a distinct overall sound of their own that is not at all trying hard to be unique yet at the same time is not looking backward to the past. The sound is timeless -- is it 1972 or 2003? _Ç A marriage of refinement and roughness, killer chops and outer abandon, structure and spontaneity, private and public, introversion and extroversion, sobriety and derangement, abject orchestras and backwoods dirges, tuning up and tuning in, microtones and dead moon anthems, love and hate; delicate hazy acoustic smoke rings, primitivist-exorcist metal, esp/actual singed free drifts of strings-wood-skin, junkyard gamelan, sunday morning chamber pot clouds and a gritty analog warmth lazy river town opium den dwellers both vital yet polluted -- with catfish the size of barges lurking down in the mud below the surface. Points of reference range from the kommunial flow of Siloah, the delicate fog song-smithery of Stone Angel and the heaviness of primitive Amon Duul 2 and Trad Gras. Yet the sound is distinctly American -- Midwestern - Kentucky chrome held together with duct tape. This beautifully packaged box set culminates with a side long liveboot dream-frisbee of a Danny Whitten-era Crazy Horse-smoking some Algerian-bluegrass w/ the Velvet Underground riding that full moon mood elevator. Valley of Ashes contains members of endless Kentucky sound miners including Sapat (forthcoming LP on Siltbreeze), Virgin Eye Blood Brothers, Raw Thug, Kark and the Magick Markers."  - BVF. Restocked repress at a much lower price.