ULU

Red Sparowes comprise Bryant Clifford Meyer on guitar/vocals (Isis), Jeff Caxide on bass/guitar (Isis), Josh Graham on guitar/vocals (Neurosis visuals and acclaimed video director), Greg Burns on bass and pedal steel (also of Temporary Residence chamber-folk sextet Halifax Pier) and Dana Berkowitz on drums (formerly of Converge offshoot The Cignal). Despite this illustrious psych-rock lineup, however, Red Sparowes sound owes more to the melodic guitar- surrealism of the mid-80s Blast First and Too Pure ilk than the bands for which their members are known. "At the Soundless Dawn", an album of seven compositions with titles that fit together as a complete paragraph, opens with a rapidly strummed single high-string, building tension as distant, delay- drenched notes saturate an almost dance-beat drum pattern. From this, the landscape is transformed as pedal-steel adds a further layer of glissando urgency, and when the second track abruptly kicks in the tense, eerie mass is reminiscent of Italian horror soundtrack masters Goblin. Icy, piercing guitars jut out while rapid bass arpeggios circle ominously ever nearer. Later in the record, walls of blissful melodic noise recall My Bloody Valentines masterpiece "Loveless"; transitions glide and smudge into a warm wash of tone, producing an orchestral mass as entrancing as it is unnerving. This stunning debut, recorded in San Francisco by engineer Desmond Shea (Neurosis) was a declaration of intent from a band already looking to alter the accepted orthodoxy of heavy music. With the release of their second album "Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun" in September 2006, Red Sparowes present a darker and more focused record than "Soundless Dawn". Recorded and mixed by Tim Green (Fucking Champs, Melvins), the album pursues the psychedelic wall of sound ethic to ever-more extreme ends, a stormy haze of droning intensity and lush feedback that is closer to Isis and Neurosis than the previous record while still retaining