#nullzone

“The Great Great Wall” opens the tape (released in a very small edition, but also available as an unlimited download) with an air of desolation. Long, elastic guitar swells undulate over an unsteady bass foundation — now it’s there, now it’s not — while a piano part that sounds like Alice Coltrane playing the pre-shoot out music in a Wild West saloon drizzles like insufficient rain. If you’re the sort of listener who gives weight to album titles, this track alone might start you wondering just what went wrong to require that kid to shut her or his eyes without a roof overhead. The title track comes next, expressing an emotional ambiguity that’s unlikely to let you off the hook. Fat, crumbling bass steps trace a downward arc while a tremolo guitar sheds an unsteady light.  

Parish is not the sort of narrator who will get you lost and leave you out there. He pushes back at the darkness on “Angular Essences.” Each note gets swept up into a swirl of delay until there’s a birdlike flock of them wheeling over a churchy organ foundation. And the Fripp-like tone of his acidic lead on “Chest Cavity Portal” feels hopeful despite the rather dire title. The cumulative emotional effect of this music makes it unlikely that you’ll use it as ambient fare, despite the occasional sonic similarities between this music and late 1970s Brian Eno. But it’s an apt companion for times when feeling is real.