Ashram to the Stars

Starting with echoed acoustic guitar, silvery guitar tones, and a general feeling of moody murk, Ashram to the Stars captures the implied psychedelic zone-out feeling of the title pretty well from the start, filtered through home-recording gloom and hush. When — perhaps inevitably — indistinct semi-chant vocals and more feedback from Herbcraft's main man Matt Lajoie pile on, the feeling is very ghost-of-Six Organs of Admittance/Flying Saucer Attack, not in a bad way but still a feeling of ground well trodden, to expected effect. "Freak Flag" aims for brighter and louder noise and multi-track squalls, a different way to find the trebly brightness in it all, while there's almost a bit of good-time boogie lurking at the heart of "Get Esoteric," providing a bit of easy-grooving chug underneath more noisy randomness. "Mass" includes more indistinct vocals and, due to its length, the most fully realized flow of extended noise crumble and distant, beautiful tone — again, if it's not uniquely remarkable on its own, it is very well handled regardless. The short burst of scraggly soloing and general flange and noise on "Altar 2: Across the Abyss" is OK enough in a screw-around-with-the-pedals fashion, while the concluding "Jupiter Trine Sun" pushes the stately/Six Organs feeling again, with the distant drumming and vague feeling of unusual tuning at work. If Lajoie is certainly good at what he's doing, there's a lingering sense that Herbcraft needs to step forward from a comfort zone when it comes to a third album, but as something to zone out to, Ashram to the Stars is enjoyable listening nonetheless.