Search - Lichens :: Psychic Nature of Being

Ambient drone improv from a member of 90 Day Men

somethingexcellent | Lincoln, NE United States | 11/25/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Robert Lowe not only sings and plays bass in 90 Day Men, but also recently joined TV On The Radio. For his solo work, he uses the name Lichens, and his long, droning pieces are pretty far removed from either of the aforementioned artists. The Psychic Nature Of Being is his debut full length CD (although he has performed several times live) and it documents his improvisational songcraft with three long tracks performed without any overdubbing or editing.



With guitar, vocals, effects, some minimal percussion, and a glow of reverb, his tracks recall the work of everyone from John Fahey to darker, more experimental drone artists. "Kirlian Auras" opens the disc with baritone moans of wordless vocals that stretch and drift out over washes of guitar feedback and even more layers of vocals that sound like incantations or evocations in a misunderstood language. Around the middle of the track, some delicate picked acoustic guitar work helps give some form and body to the track, but parts and splits and eventually falls away leaving just the droning winds.



"Shoreline Scoring" follows a somewhat similar structure as it opens with eerie, looping drones that mix vocals with guitar wash in an increasingly tense way before acoustic guitar picking comes in and anchors the track towards the latter part. "You Are Excrement, You Can Turn Yourself Into Gold" closes the release, and at over twenty minutes comprises half the running length of the entire CD. Built with the same elements as the previous tracks, it nonetheless feels a bit more sparse and dynamic despite the longer running length (mostly because the drones themselves are a bit less overwhelming). At times, the two elements (the dramatic, almost driving acoustic guitars and the drones) feel almost at odds with one another, yet at others they seem to lock up almost perfectly and create some sort of primal tug that is seemingly the goal of all improvised music. Given the palette of sound, Lichens creates a unique (if somewhat creepy at times) environment. Similar to Charalambides in several ways, The Psychic Nature Of Being is a release that is stunning in places and somewhat sluggish in others.



(from almost cool music reviews)"

Hungry like the wolf

Russell E. Scott | Austin, TX | 10/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Imagine ET or some similar alien isolated, lonely, lost on some distant shore calling out to the dark cosmos, continually calling home. Then add an eery soundtrack as howling and original as any match made in the heavens. Robert Lowe as the solo Lichens takes you on this rare sonic journey into the obscure. With strong eastern and Asian yearnings, voice manipulations, and a flare for composing on a grand scale we are twice blessed in the same month by raw, uncut jewels from the kranky vaults. Along with the equally though somewhat more subdued Boduf Songs, The Psychic Nature of Being enters the intergalactic with a rush and a chill. Robert Lowe sounds like a shaman and ancient chant discovering an IMD studio by accident, then tweaking the knobs just so until his message is palpable for the hidden nuances of higher intelligence wherever it might exist. If all this sounds and reads a bit left of center, well you just haven't been there yet. With the onslaught of great music being released this fall (Boards of Canada, Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, Franz Ferdinand, Wolf Parade, Brian McBride, Sigur Ros, etc.) it's easy to get distracted. With me its a simple case of economics - pick two, the rest can wait. Like the bumper sticker says 'keep it weird' so I stuck with kranky - the label that keeps the terms 'need to know network' and 'essential underground' vibrant, alive, and pushing the edge. Discover a new universe and spin like a planet. Its a whole lot better and more fun than rocket science."