Eternal Tapestry / Gnod – God Unknown Records Singles Club: Volume 1 – 7″/DD 2014
Jason Stoll of Mugstar fame brings to the table the first release from his new imprint God Unknown Records. This outing from Portland’s Eternal Tapestry and Manchester’s very own Gnod marks the first in a series of 10 subscriber only 7” singles – aside from being a great collectable concept, the bar has been well and truly set from the off and with a slew of already familiar artists waiting in the wings for release including White Hills, Acid Mothers Temple, Teeth Of The Sea and Mugstar themselves to pick but a few, this shall be a very desirable collection indeed.
Eternal Tapestry have enjoyed a few higher profile releases via Thrill Jockey and a slew of self-released material, but I was still a virgin to their psychedelic offerings. The cut on this single delivers a brief but entirely encapsulating piece of psych that doesn’t fail to enthrall and provides a perfect blissed out ritual of constantly shifting guitar and disparate, ghost like vocal work all held together by a slowly rising flurry of drums. The Dream as the track is titled is exactly that, taking you on a sublime, laid back and peaceful journey, elements flowing and morphing through some imaginary, ethereal plane.
On the flipside we have Gnod, known for their ever changing improvised nature whilst still holding together strands of their own particular style, their development over the years has been fascinating to watch. From the recent, more electronic focused material to their earlier psych offerings, they have always brought the goods both on and off stage. At the moment they seem to be embracing further experimentation as the track unfolds amongst splices of saxophone and ritual-esque shimmering and a single repeating drum kick that slows down proceedings to a ponderous crawl. Again following the dreamlike theme of this release, the track is intensely evocative whilst anchoring the listener in a state of familiarity which enables you to give yourself over to the trance like state they expertly craft. I was lucky enough to catch Gnod recently supporting the equally excellent $hit and $hine and their live performance that night was what I imagine to be an extended version of this track, so I was glad to hear it had been committed to record in some form. A cracking opener for God Unknown, here’s to the next nine!
Label: God Unknown Records
Eternal Tapestry: Facebook
Gnod: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter
Scribed by: Todd Robinson
