1 Plant Navigations, Part I
2 Moss Urn
3 The Primeval Glaze
4 Trilobites
5 The Grasslands
6 Plant Navigations, Part II
A friend of mine recently said that he actually has been enjoying some of the Jewelled Antler side-projects even more than some of the 'main' stuff recently. I am not really sure I agree on that, but what such a statement proves is that this loosely knit group of San Francisco-based musicians continues to be able to churn out exceptional music at the drop of a coin into a hat.
In the shape of Horticultural Compass (Samara Dun, Rob Reger, Donovan Quinn, Buffy Vice Sick & Glenn Donaldson) we get ceremonies of celebratory string massage, layered field recordings, swirling drones, beautifully plucked guitar plus the regular myriad of exotic instrumentation. The Apparition of Bees sounds distinctively Jewelled Antlerish but still quite unlike the other combos I?ve been fortunate to treat my ears with. Sometimes they border the haunting realms of Thuja?s improvised music, in others we get a glimpse of the Franciscan Hobbies? caterpillars of majestic oak beauty and at the most melodious and structured we get to experience a similar kind of slightly bent, mellow organic psychedelia as Glenn Donaldson does under his various tree monikers.
There's a loose and highly improvised approach to drones and quietly tinkling noise present here, and what makes it work so successfully is that the band just lets things wander wherever it?s natural to go next. I wouldn?t yet place this dark, slowly unfolding aural mystery up there with the best work of Thuja or the Franciscan Hobbies, but I wouldn?t be surprised if that has changed the next time we get to hear these guys.
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