Aziola Cry – Ghost Conversations

Their material is pretty sharp in concert. In the studio, it is tighter than the pores in a fiberglass canoe. As this disc is only 23 minutes long, there is no incentive to spend exorbitant amounts of time hashing through its infernal magma. For that reason, let’s dive right through the surface of this active geyser:

Ghost Conversations I – The initial moments are strictly ambient. Jason Blake shows us that his Stick Bass® has undergone sensitivity training. He’s reserved for several whole minutes. Even so, the excruciating wait is rewarded. Once school’s out for the summer, he’s quickly sloshing around in puddles of melodic mud. As the drums are lightly tapped, the guitar gingerly wails. This makes way for a sorrowful cadence that eventually forces a platonic shift.

Ghost Conversations II – The first track gives us a couple spiritual squonks, but it’s not enough to make us squint. In this piece, we are smothered by a heavy drift of volcanic ash that’s akin to OSI’s “The Thing That Never Was”.

Ghost Conversations III – If the second created tremors, the third anomaly is more inclined to initiate a quake. While the guitar puts pock holes in the walls, the bass and drums cause the foundation to crumble. Eventually, this gets too tepid to handle as the progressive rock turns into molten lava. It’s best to lock the chinaware away as this unnatural vent ultimately spits liquid heat whilst flinging scorching balls the size of boulders.

Start to finish, this is an emotional rush that builds exponentially from one track to the next. Prior to my jaunt across this demonstrative aperture and gap, I heard this song performed live at two different venues. Still, the listening session with this disc was surprisingly-jarring. While the concert hall made you feel the shockwaves from the speakers, the EP locks onto frequencies of seismic waves. In the official format, the production is slicker than an oil rig in a blaze. When music this refined it run through a clean filter, the result is as rare and pure as the tears from a phoenix. With Ghost Conversations awakening from stasis, you could say, Aziola Cry is on pleasantly-shaky ground.

8.5/10