Ancestors
Neptune With Fire

I first listened to this record just before six in the morning while driving through the foggy Sepulveda pass and the setting couldn’t have been more apt. Neptune is moody and dark, and over the course of two lengthy tracks I was treated to a soundtrack worthy of an early morning trek across Southern California’s freeways. Ancestors cover a lot of ground, from heavy down-tuned riffing to doom-style drone dirges, soothing post rock and loud psychedelic freak-outs. With some bands, this would lead to a disjointed listening experience, but Ancestors avoid that trap, even when referencing the clean guitar lines of the more recent releases by Earth or the organ and distortion driven psych-attack of the bands in the Acid Mothers Temple universe. (In fact, if they ever collaborate, “Ancestor Mothers Temple” sound like a pretty great side project title.) I think this album will appeal to fans of any of the above mentioned genres and artists, but also to those who don’t have the patience to sit through a 70-minute drone album, especially if they’d prefer to hear something more along the lines of a well-paced epic soundtrack.

— Adam Fisher