Birchville Cat Motel

i've been listening to New Zealand's Birchville Cat Motel, one of the solo projects of one Campbell Kneale, for about 4 hours now, putting off food and other physical necessities, which is sadly not all that unusual for me, resulting in a form of hypnagogic hyper-lucidity, slightly weak but nerves a-blaze, susceptible to the low-end mantras, pyrochastic-flow guitar, ritualistic percussion and harmonium, and elevating found-sounds. A real drift. Astral travel behind closed eyes.
At first, the pummeling repetition of listening to a noise/drone artist's catalog for extended periods of time can seem grating, boring and repetitive, shrill, piercing, drilling. But once i've settled in, and accepted the sounds as part of the audio environment, it seems perfect, immutable, and i feel BCM's music is best experienced as an immersive experience, a portable temple, slipped into at will. Its like stepping into the inner-world of someone who lives on the other side of the world, and is endlessly badass, in this writer's opinion.
Lately, with the changing of the seasons, and subtle tectonic rumblings going on in my psyche, i've rediscovered my blood-thirsty devotion to ritualistic drone and ambient music, playing records for hours on end as i read or sleep. I'm also psyching myself up to begin releasing solo guitar excursions of my own, so i have been seeking inspiration and guidance. And i'm always struck with extreme gratitude; discovering BCM, Skullflower, Yellow Swans, the list goes on, from the very first moment this music seemed perfect, and something i stumbled upon arbitrarily. It still seems special and holy.
The 3 discs are comprised of a variety of live performances, from all over the globe. A decent microcosm of the Birchville style, and often impressive that they are able to reproduce this cacophany live. Soothing and meditative, at times, but in a sensory overload kind of way. Like bathing in a blood-warm bath of corn syrup, an amniotic sensation that is typical of this type of BLISSdrone. There seems to be a sense of optimism, hopefulness, humanity, imbued in this music, that is one of the things that i really appreciate, and oftentimes go to rather than the more dystopian, bleak/suicidal tone of more of the power-noise/experimental industrial types. Like a ray of light, streaking through smoke. Utterly psychedelic, and there's some destructive tendencies, SURE, we will not turn our faces from the darkness, but we will not fail to see the light, either. Rituals for resurrecting a bruised spirit, for calling up winged godforms from our own subconsciousness, to heal all wounds, to grace limbs and minds and tongues with fire. Music for the struggle. Music for the march.
In short, good shit, that i think more people should hear, and thats why i do this thing.

Birchville Cat Motel - Second Curved Surface Destroy
disc 1
disc 2
disc 3