27 Jan 2017

Journey to Ixtlan: "Journey to Ixtlan"


An organic sound blanket that falls gracefully on the ground, covering everything in its mesa colours
Clay Ruby is undoubtedly most well known for Burial Hex (or one of the countless other groups he has been involved with over the years), and given his involvement in such a staggering amount of groups, bands and projects, most are bound to overlook the massively leviathan album that is Journey to Ixtlan.
"...alleviated in a shower of dreaming, free-form string sequences."

The album, hitherto the only one from this project, presents as droning, desert-like ambience held together by massive mountains of distorted guitar, and alleviated in a shower of dreaming, free-form string sequences. Organ passages thrown here and there provide a little drama to the sky blue and sand colored peyote-soundscape, dedicating each reverberating tune to Middle American and Amazonian spiritualism, doused in enough gloomy darkness to stay grounded.

Deeply self-resonant, Journey To Ixtlan sways between being a relaxing, dosed-off night chill and a white hot hallucination under the burning mid day sun. Songs like The Cactus Shrine, Pueblo and Spiritual Delousing are cosmic in scope, interdimensional even, and yet so rigidly down to earth with its half-life doom rhythms trudging ever onward. As we approach the album's 10 year anniversary, it remains an unsung gem, rife with life, flowing rituals passed down through generation, a mescaline authority in atmosphere as well as authenticity.

9/10


Released in 2008 by Aurora Borealis Recordings

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