Seven That Spells: Black Om Rising

Wrapped intricately like a holiday present in book binding with a gatefold image of topless women and buddhas cavorting in the sky, Seven That Spells thankfully don’t say anything on the instrumental Black Om Rising. The band regularly puts out limited-run releases of abstract psychedelic narratives that fever out of control or space out into remote cosmic hinterlands. On the surface, they seem to be following the lead of Japanese noise-rock guru, Acid Mothers Temple founder, and occasional Seven That Spells collaborator Kawabata Makoto, a.k.a the most prolific recording artist in history. Yet, the Slavic foursome have likely been digging deep into the Western canon as well as the Nipponese one. On Black Om Rising, there’s traces of the propulsive intensity of motorik post-rockers like Trans Am and Turing Machine, the apocalyptic prog ferocity of Magma, and the virtuosity of The Mars Volta. There’s even traces of free jazz in Lovro Ziopaša’s sax-ranting, which uses dub echo to ominous insistence on “RA”. The centerpiece of Black Om Rising is the three act play “Lo”, which emerges from simple gothic Dick-Dale-tremolo and dilates outward into mini orchestral vignettes that are both sporadic and organically harvested. The CD’s side B, a DVD capture of a live performance, catches the band at even more frenetic and dissonant heights, proving them a most worthy import indeed.