Siren - Living Light / Changeling - The Truth of the Blossom (Buried Valley CSs)

Kinda funny that with all or both of the references to Changeling in the past two days, we come full circle with a tape by them (not to mention Siren) on the newish Buried Valley who are quite nondescript but almost read like a Not Not Fun offshoot with the products they're pushing. Pocahaunted, Robedoor, Quintana Roo and now this Siren tape who is in fact Bethany of Pocahaunted...it's like six degrees of seperation all over the place, go figger. These two tapes serve as my introduction to Buried Valley as I was not aware of their existance until this point. Sounds like a nice place to hang out for a spell at the very least.
I started based on lower catalogue number which means I played Siren's tape first. It's kinda funny, aside from that little four minute slice on the Not Not Fun 3" reviewed the other day, I know virtually nothing about them and yet I still thought "Living Light" gave off a heavy Pocahaunted vibe...then I found out it was one-half of Pocahaunted at work and man, sometimes I even impress myself. I have to say though after a while all these new drone groups and sideprojects and what have you start bleeding together but that's okay, I'm none too picky myself. And since La Monte still has the vault on lockdown I might as well check out the trickle down effect while I'm alive what say? This Siren tape is just a c20, 10 per side, kinda tough to get a full-on mental float going on when you're dreading the clicking sound of the tape giving out but "Living Light" does the trick in a pinch. First side "Feather Crown" is a fine pinkish mist with dilapidated chord jangles softly coaxed out of what I can only assume to be a six-string electric. The ghostly female (obv.) moans over the top are a pretty deft touch. It ain't academic but it shore is pretty. The bee side "Spiral Spell" is doubly delirious, mega stratosphere-exceeding levitation served with plenty of hallucinatory loops and distant, dream-like vocals. There's almost a Current 93 with an AWOL Tibet feel going on here; at least it's got the apocalyptik vizion intact. Imagine if heaven was a real sweaty place and here you are.
The Changeling tape fought me from the get-go, I had to start with side two and even then a little fast-forwarding over the initial rough spots in the actual tape were needed. Nevertheless I made it and I'm glad I did. I rather like this Changeling dude, whoever he may or may not be. I have to say the first track on the "wrong" side, "Solitude", is an even mooore dragged out chapel haunted infected with a very Nitschian vibe...way zen yet way face-blooded undercurrent. The other half "Without Saying" reps more in the way of slow-burning gamma rays and genetal acid-blazed fuzz. It's a beauty, but it's too short. Gimme sixty minutes! Flipped it over and got side A working which is a ten-ish minute piece called "Falling", pretty appropriate; at least if you're falling out of a jumbo jet at five hundred thousand feet. Sounds like a torched organ, overhead scream and burning but not as harsh as you may interpret that...think of it like an aural sunburn more than anything. Don't want to overwrite it so I'll tell you it's yet another great side of somnambulism from this expert of the field, you know how essential Changeling's stuff is by now. Limited to 60, don't miss!
Also on tap for the Buried Valley label are cassettes from Frozen Corpse (who had a great Sloow Tape last year), Changeling & Nackt Insecten, Bonecloud and (VxPxCx)...future looks bright. For them and for you. And me. And all of us!

MP3:
Siren - Feather Crown (excerpt)
Siren - Spiral Spell (excerpt)