AMG Review of Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box

François Couture
All Music Guide

With its triple sets devoted to Uton, My Cat Is an Alien, and MCMS, the small independent label Last Visible Dog is not known for shortchanging the underground music enthusiast, to say the least. But the numbers surrounding this box set are staggering: six discs, for a total of seven and a half hours of music; 31 artists, each given an EP-long slot. The list of contributors offers a cross section of the Last Visible Dog family of artists, with particularly important looks at the Scandinavian, Italian, Japanese, and Rhode Island scenes. The menu is quite diverse, but always revolves around the axis one can draw between electric psychedelic rock and experimental acoustic music -- a line that also goes through free improv and drone music. Like the more modestly sized 2003 compilation Invisible Pyramid, this Elegy Box draws its inspiration from the writings of naturalist Loren Eiseley. Every contribution is dedicated to an extinct animal species (about which some information is included), a theme also picked up throughout the artwork of this lavish set. Black Forest/Black Sea's Jeffrey Alexander took care of the eye candy, while Last Visible Dog mogul Chris Moon selected the tracks and Urdog's Jeff Knoch composed one of his entertainingly obscure essays. More importantly, the music rules, with several excellent, daring, provocative pieces and only a few average tracks. Of particular interest are Bardo Pond, Urdog, and Miminokoto's extended pieces, all wonderful (and diverse) takes on psychedelic rock. Black Forest/Black Sea, Uton, Fürsaxa, and Avarus represent, among others, the "avant folk" subset. Loren Chasse, Ben Reynolds, Peter Wright, and Mudboy's propositions raise several interesting questions. The track list could have used some reworking (discs two and four are overall slightly weaker than the other four), but otherwise, this box set is a class act all the way and one of the essential items of 2005. Its quality largely justifies its price tag.