San Serac

There are three tracks on this mind-altering CD, comprised of a variety of instruments, which were independently recorded and spliced together in something of a poor man's version of an orchestral arrangement. The first piece, entitled "Outside Chance," opens up with a clatter of cymbals and a variety of percussive noises, then halfway through a chorus of wind instruments wails away like the wind against a pane of glass in an old house. All the while bass strings by St. Onge accentuate the noise, offering some soft textures in the face of all that chaotic harshness, which in turn gives way to what might be considered guest vocals from ducks and squirrels, which in turn collapses into a-structural string arrangements. Track two, entitled "Soot," opens slightly more disoriented, with a chorus of frightened brass instruments followed by what must be a guitar going through a panic attack. On Hashish closes off with "Wherewithal," which is a more immersive and textural listen comprised of soft static and distorted noises. Sam Shalabi dedicates his recording to historian and critical theorist Walter Benjamin, who wrote an incomplete book about hashish. A disorienting recording that does justice to emulating the disorienting effects of this popular controlled substance.