The Robot's Guide To Freedom

Sludge-psych-biker-metal-whatever you want to call it has rapidly become its own self-sustaining loop, as with any other genre of sorts -- there are its practitioners, its codifiers, those who don't care for the term at all, and more besides, not to mention the side projects and supergroups. Thus Ten East, and thus their second album, where the core duo of Gary Arce and Mario Lalli are joined by, among others, Greg Ginn, who contributes organ and guitar at various points throughout, as does Kyuss/Obsessed veteran Scott Reeder (though just on guitar). The resultant collection of instrumentals comes across as somewhere between formal exercise and enjoyable enough time -- at first it too often seems there's little sense of being completely frazzled and rampaging, instead maintaining a steady pace that locks it in somewhere between opening for Pink Floyd in 1972 and opening for Trans Am in 1999. When the group fully lets fly, admittedly, everything perks up noticeably, and titling one of the quicker romps "Hogbreath" is a nice earthy touch. Similarly, the conclusion to "Ocean Dome" -- thanks to a skybound spiraling guitar part -- is another winner, while "Octopad" finally drops some of the cleanliness a bit to get really riled up and sound like it. Throughout the album one of the sharpest touches comes from Ginn's organ work, which is both perfectly suitable to the material and at times a great wild card, showing that one of the more mysterious figures of American music still has it in him. Meanwhile, while it's not clear if the song "Silkworm" is a tribute to the fine band of the same name, it's definitely another standout for the album, big and politely brawling. ~ Ned Raggett|