Album Review: Catharsis In Crisis by Old Time Relijun
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*Rating:* 8.7
Ignoring the unignorable (a squiggly red line is telling me that's not a word even though, clearly, it should be) Captain Beefheart connections, Old Time Relijun have never been more aptly, or literally, named.To listen to Catharsis In Crisis is to take a roadtrip across America's dusty southwest, through its murky south, and into the eastern Oakie backwoods searching out the religions that define the native populations. And we're not talking gospel clapping, or come-to-Jesus amped guitar - we're talking the sweat lodgers, the barefooted polygamists, the snake handlers, and the Santeria mystics.These sounds and songs are, like those that believe, odd and earnest, exhibiting a bizarrely sound logic that takes our simple watered-down theologies and explores the dark and delirious back alleys that most of us are too afraid to trespass into. "Hey," they say, "the bible you supposedly believe is infallible says that true believers will withstand a serpent's bite and not be harmed...so why the hell aren't you handling cobras?" Despite the relative ease to look at a these people and make fun or dismiss them as simply crazy...one thing remains infallibly true - they, like Old Time Relijun, are deathly serious about what they profess. And as far as preachers go, few are as moving, serious or bizarre, as OTR's Arrington de Dionyso.
If you're reading this and still trying to wrap your brain around what they guys sound like, just go ahead and give up, because I haven't even gotten to de Dionyso's voice yet. My only explaination for how he gets his voice to do what it does is that he's installed a zipper in his throat - and instead of singing, he just unzips and plays his vocal chords like a gristly banjo. It's either that or he's been gargling on Tom Waits' acid reflux.Trust me, it's a sight to behold...or, um.. a sound to be-hear.One of the pleasures of this album is that Old Time Relijun treat it as such. Like that trip through the American underbelly, it's less about the individual stops than it is (say it with me) "the journey". It's refreshing in this age of ringtones and singles and the general failure of the album concept as a whole to hear a band that knows what it means for a song to butt up against the song before it, to drip into the song after, and to flavor all the tracks throughout. This album isn't designed to be taken as a shot...nope, you gotta chug the whole damn thing.For all the praise I have for this album, there are a few weak parts...and they all have to do with the lead vocalist, or, I guess I should say, when he disappears. When you have someone as hypnotic as de Dionyso, you get greedy as a listener. You always want more. 'Garden of Pomegranates' is a groovy southwestern horn dirge, but its pure instrumentation only really serves to stall until de Dionyso lets loose the gravelly caterwauling of 'Akavishim'. Luckily, this type of thing doesn't happen often - and honestly, on a trip as wild as this, can you blame em' for needing a break?Old Time Relijun will either scare you, or make a believer out of you - and let's face it, the most effective religions always try and do both.*If the vocals intrigue you, try* Ghostdigital (if Old Time Relijun made electro hip-hop), Frog Eyes, Xiu Xiu
Ignoring the unignorable (a squiggly red line is telling me that's not a word even though, clearly, it should be) Captain Beefheart connections, Old Time Relijun have never been more aptly, or literally, named.To listen to Catharsis In Crisis is to take a roadtrip across America's dusty southwest, through its murky south, and into the eastern Oakie backwoods searching out the religions that define the native populations. And we're not talking gospel clapping, or come-to-Jesus amped guitar - we're talking the sweat lodgers, the barefooted polygamists, the snake handlers, and the Santeria mystics.These sounds and songs are, like those that believe, odd and earnest, exhibiting a bizarrely sound logic that takes our simple watered-down theologies and explores the dark and delirious back alleys that most of us are too afraid to trespass into. "Hey," they say, "the bible you supposedly believe is infallible says that true believers will withstand a serpent's bite and not be harmed...so why the hell aren't you handling cobras?" Despite the relative ease to look at a these people and make fun or dismiss them as simply crazy...one thing remains infallibly true - they, like Old Time Relijun, are deathly serious about what they profess. And as far as preachers go, few are as moving, serious or bizarre, as OTR's Arrington de Dionyso.If you're reading this and still trying to wrap your brain around what they guys sound like, just go ahead and give up, because I haven't even gotten to de Dionyso's voice yet. My only explaination for how he gets his voice to do what it does is that he's installed a zipper in his throat - and instead of singing, he just unzips and plays his vocal chords like a gristly banjo. It's either that or he's been gargling on Tom Waits' acid reflux.Trust me, it's a sight to behold...or, um.. a sound to be-hear.One of the pleasures of this album is that Old Time Relijun treat it as such. Like that trip through the American underbelly, it's less about the individual stops than it is (say it with me) "the journey". It's refreshing in this age of ringtones and singles and the general failure of the album concept as a whole to hear a band that knows what it means for a song to butt up against the song before it, to drip into the song after, and to flavor all the tracks throughout. This album isn't designed to be taken as a shot...nope, you gotta chug the whole damn thing.For all the praise I have for this album, there are a few weak parts...and they all have to do with the lead vocalist, or, I guess I should say, when he disappears. When you have someone as hypnotic as de Dionyso, you get greedy as a listener. You always want more. 'Garden of Pomegranates' is a groovy southwestern horn dirge, but its pure instrumentation only really serves to stall until de Dionyso lets loose the gravelly caterwauling of 'Akavishim'. Luckily, this type of thing doesn't happen often - and honestly, on a trip as wild as this, can you blame em' for needing a break?Old Time Relijun will either scare you, or make a believer out of you - and let's face it, the most effective religions always try and do both.*If the vocals intrigue you, try* Ghostdigital (if Old Time Relijun made electro hip-hop), Frog Eyes, Xiu Xiu
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