Om
‘Pilgrimage’
Southern
Aven’t you got an ‘om to go to? Om was once the derisory chant of suburban school children who had seen ‘The Young Ones’ on spying men with long hair walking warily through shopping centres. Before that it was a briefly popular incantation made by people who dressed like ‘Open University’ maths lecturers while meditating cross-legged on beige linoleum. And quite some time before that ‘Aum’, the most sacred of syllables in Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh texts, often the incantation made right at the beginning and end of readings. In Sanskrit the literal meaning was ‘to give praise to’ and after that ‘droning sound’. So some things should be clear already: we’re dealing with people with long hair who probably talk a lot of rubbish.
And yes, a quick look at the lyric sheet confirms it: “Astral preceptors formate in consecration/Transmits from minaret across beautified dawn/Visage to auric accordant-form; in reascension/Emits reverential tears in dhyanic refuge.” Holy fuck, we’re only a gnat’s chuff away from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons territory here. “Not the D20 Drmyad! The level drain will kill my orc!”
But before you run away too quickly, let me just say that if you’ve got a healthy appetite for the absurd Om are actually excellent. They arose blearily from the remains of legendary stoner doom outfit Sleep, consisting of bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius to make meditative and soporific drone rock. Their Tibetan style stoner chant rock was as hippy dippy as the Jonathan Livingston Seagull artwork on albums such as ‘Conference Of Birds’ but they have really taken it up a gear here. (This is somewhat surprising as Steve Albini – him of the live studio recordings – is at the helm and Om have a somewhat tarnished live reputation.)
The four tracks here form a devotional pilgrimage with the emphasis on ‘grimm’ as they explore the texture of velvet bass drones at the opposite end of the scale from Billy Preston in his Thrones incarnation. The ten minute long opening title track sucks you into an ever morphing but never really changing gentle bass riff that flows liquid like from your speakers. This is a sedative, a pre-med, a shot of morphine before the surgical strike of the bass overload, wrenching you out of your stupor. This is the ‘Aum’ at the beginning of the text. (It is repeated in the final track ‘Pilgrimage (reprise)’ at the end.)
The real meat of the piece comes with ‘Unitive Knowledge Of The Godhead’ which, brilliantly, is exactly the same just, very, very loud. Then this is followed by the sublime ‘Bhima’s Theme’ which sounds like an incantatory cover version of The Sisters of Mercy’s ‘Floorshow’. Not for everyone then but for those with a passion for the extremes of drone and doom, Om, sweet Om.
