Six Organs of Admittance has dusted off the old tapes and collected some of his earlier and rarest material for the forthcoming RTZ, a fan-aimed compilation hitting shelves next Tuesday.  And zounds!  That shit is evil.  Of course, I mean this is the most loving sense.  Those of us familiar with School of Flower, The Sun Awakens, and the like know Ben Chasny and friends for engaging modalities, Fahey-esque and internationally-informed guitar noodling, and drone examinations, all with a slight bucolic, freewheeling, and sometimes whimsical aura. Not so much on RTZ.  Well, the noodling and drones are here, but the earlier material reflects a lot less of the good-times-pass-the-bong vibe that has oft defined many folks’ association with 6OA.

“Warm Earth, Which I’ve Been Told” is a tribal distress chant, or possibly a primitive summoning spell to seed clouds and deploy locust swarms.  Ben sings smoke signals and convinces you that living in the forest and off the land would be a pretty simple transition.  Interestingly enough, and without the hyperbole, this particular chanty, notwithstanding the collapsing midsection, resembles Chasney’s Comets on Fire acoustic, despite having been recorded a number of years before Blue Cathedral reared its head.  With styles and a replete repetoire like Chasny’s, it’s fun to try to trace where ideas may have come from.

“Creation Aspect Earth” sounds like a tune you’d hear at Aleister Crowley’s last dinner party, or what the four horsemen would bump on their over-the-shoulder ghetto blasters whilst igniting thatched-roof cottages.  Though “Creation Aspect Earth”sounds like a Jan Hammer album, this, I assure you, sounds nothing like Jan (though both Ben and Jan rule, but for different reasons).  If the song scares you at first, everything clams down after the 6-minute mark, and you are duly treated to an intimate glimpse of just Ben and his guitar hangin’ out and spitballin’.  Both movements are beautiful, however.

So to answer your question, fuck yeah it’s good – grip it here on dos discs or a 3-LP set. And for more background info and fUn FaCtS on RTZ, head over here.

MP3 :::
Six Organs of Admittance – Warm Earth, Which I’ve Been Told
Six Organs of Admittance – Creation Aspect Earth

A friend of mine once wrote that his first experience seeing Six Organs of Admittance live caused pure dimension, in addition to believe things that were not true.  He was convinced his apartment had a fourth room, which it did not, and he was ready to take a hammer to the bathroom to discover it.  This, of course, only scratches the surface concerning the mystical power of Six Organs’ incandescent, eastern tinged, enveloping psychedelic modal noodling.  It’s barely conceivable what some would do to grip the rarest of Ben Chasny’s repertoire.  Lucky for us, RTZ (Return to Zero) curates some of the rarest and some of the best on one priced-to-own brain burner.

The double disc, or three LP, set collects a lot of coveted, rare material, including “Resurrection” from the 6OA/Charlambadies split, one of Chasny’s first recordings that was limited 33 copies (dating back to ‘99), and some choice live performances.  Totally spiritual.  It’s like finding the arc of covenant.

No tracklist has yet been released, not that you need a tracklist to know that you’re going to pick this up early next year.  RTZ drops January 20, 2009 courtesy of Drag City.  Tiny Mix Tapes will have the skinny when more info becomes available.

“They Fixed the Broken Windmill” is one of my favorite from For Octavio Paz, and though its still in print, it’s sometimes hard to find.

MP3 :::
Six Organs of Admittance – They Fixed the Broken Windmill