Sh'mantra - Formula Orange

Disc 1

1. Kiutl (10:59) 2. Robots on the Beach (6:13) 3. Pit and the Pendulum (9:36) 4. 74.40s167.20e04:46:18 (13:17) 5. Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon (3:57) 6. Unlisted track (0:06) 7. Sunburst on the Cayman Trench (7:54) 7. Absence_substance_quantity_quality_relation_action_affection_position_
time_location_condition_place and state_presence (17:19)

Disc 2

1. Recurring Nocturnal Habit II (2:58) 2. Inanimate Articulate (8:11) 3. tws (24:47)

Total Running Time: 105:17

Australia, the land of kangaroos, koalas, Crocodile Dundee, AC/DC, and progressive rock. Is there anything wrong with this picture? (Hint: it's certainly not AC/DC.) Exactly. Australia isn't exactly recognized as a worldwide sanctuary for progressive rock bands or festivals; take a hundred and choose your next category. You better do it quickly, however, because Sh'mantra is bound to turn your answer into nil with its sophomore effort, Formula Orange.

Formula Orange is simply one of those records where one knows things are going to be great just from looking at the album's gorgeously diffuse booklet and realizing that these musicians had the guts necessary to include tracks that nearly span half an hour without ever making one bang his head against the wall in desperate fits of suicidal hysteria. Oh, the glory of being able to listen to a new band that can draw from sounds akin to those of Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, and Radiohead, and present a modern and absorbing palette concocted from these fine elements! It is indeed full of a vibrant joie de vivre that is presented in diaphanous and minimalist melodies and harmonies of often slow and gradual beauty, and it is also quick to sink in with its sparse elaborateness.

Take the gentle acoustic flow of "Pit and the Pendulum," the awesome bass groove of "Recurring Nocturnal Habit," or the gradual and engrossing progression of the final track on the record's first disc (I refuse to write that name because it's too damn long!), and the aural painting will already look like a masterpiece just waiting to be finished by the heavy ending to "Robots on the Beach," the dramatic gorgeousness of "Sweat of the Sun, Tears of the Moon," and the unendingly twisting "tws." This is a record that brings each elemental block of beauty at a painstaking rate so that the listener is slowly enthralled by the unfolding mysteries that are released after each new listen, and the effects are soon felt as an undeniable attraction caused by perfect timing and perfect progression. 100% pure. Not from concentrate. Shake well and make sure you try and buy this one soon, because it's one of the most captivating releases of the year so far.

-by Marcelo Silveyra

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