Almost three years ago, I wrote in my Blog that Ben Chasny (aka Six Organs of Admittance) was one of most significant figures to emerge from America's new folk 'underground' music scene and nothing he has done since then has made me change this opinion. Asleep On The Floodplain merely confirms what an amazing talent he is.
The fact that he is so underrated is partly his own doing. Despite occasionally appearing on the mainstream radar, and once being absurdly described, in The Sun of all places, as the "Jimi Hendrix of Folk", he is not one to court attention. As he put it in one interview: "I am inspired to make the most communicative music with the least amount of ego that I can".
As sometime member of Comets of Fire and as part of the trio Rangda (with Chris Corsano and Sir Richard Bishop), Chasny has proved that he is not averse to improvised electric freak-outs but it is the more introspective strand of his personality that dominates his latest album.
It consists of home recordings made between 2007 - 2010 in his bedroom in San Francisco and in a small space in Seattle. It is a completely solo work apart from some low-key chants by Elisa Ambrogio (from Magik Markers) at the beginning of River of My Youth.
His music has always acknowledged that, irrespective of whether or not we are believers, we are all following some form of a spiritual path. This is evident here from the strange mystical drawings of Steve Quenell's cover art and is musically referenced through monotone voice, drones and repetitive acoustic patterns.
There are vocals on several tracks but nothing remotely resembling verse-chorus structures - it is as if we are eavesdropping on his private musings.
The emphasis on minimalism is most evident on two one minute solo pieces - Saint of Fishermen and Poppies - which have no overdubs at all. Equally the harmonium drone on the opening track (Above A Desert I've Never Seen) and A New Name On An Old Cement Bridge merely serve to add a subtle backdrop rather than to intrude on the main refrains.
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The stroke of genius that elevates the album to greatness is the twelve and a half minute S/word And Leviathan. This mind-blowing and hypnotic piece stays on a practically unvarying raga-drone and wordless chant for ten minutes before a final burst into voice and electric guitar. The climax is all the more effective because of the contrast to the quiet acoustic mood of the rest of the album.
The track's title refers to a passage from Job telling of the struggle to slay the Satanic sea monster, Leviathan, which threatens to literally drown God's creation in a destructive tempest. The King James edition reads "the sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon".
The liner notes say that the piece was informed by the writings of Theologian, Catherine Keller and he has stated elsewhere that he has drawn in particular from her discussion of chaos as a serpent in her book 'Apocalypse Now And Then'.
Chasny's other literary inspirations include popular science writer Carl Sagan and French philosopher Gaston Bachelard . A quote from Bachelard seems particularly to Chasny's musical journey: "one must always maintain one's connection to the past and yet ceaselessly pull away from it".
Some records take you to another plain of thought to expand your brain and this is one of them. In a footnote on the sleeve there is a veiled dedication to the late Jack Rose - Dr Ragtime - asking the question :"now who will call bullshit on the bullshitters?". The highest compliment I can think of for this stunning album is that Jack would have approved.
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