Om "Conference of the Birds" (Holy Mountain)
By Ari Joffe
Tuesday. May 30, 3:40 PM
Righteous, spiritual doom.

Wow, this is a tripped out album. Fans of heavy, stoner friendly music need to get Conference of the Birds.

If you don’t know who Om are, let me give you a little history. The two dudes, bassist/vocalist Al Cisneros and drummer Chris Hakius, used to be the rhythm section for Sleep. Now, you’ve probably heard of Sleep, since nowadays everyone and their mother pays lip service to their infamous dirge-doom classic, Jerusalem (a.k.a. Dopesmoker). That was a killer album for sure, but Om have taken that same spirit of exploration and gone in a less overtly heavy, but even more satisfying, direction.

With their first album, 2005’s Variations on a Theme, the duo began their mission to create the most trance-inducing jams they could by exploring all the infinite variations of twisting and turning a central riff into dozens of different shapes. They continue the tradition with this, their latest album. The music is bare bones – drums, bass, and chants – owing as much to the deep, militant grooves of ‘70s Jamaican dub (I’m talkin’ King Tubby, Augustus Pablo, Keith Hudson, Scientist: if you don’t know it, go search it out!) and the more ethereal aspects of Pink Floyd as it does to its obvious Black Sabbath foundation.

It’s real righteous, spiritual sounding stuff. Whether I’ve planned to or not, I’ve ended up listening to the whole thing straight through time and time again because the vibrations just feel so good. Once they’ve started massaging my brain, I don’t want them to stop. When it’s loud enough, I can feel it in my teeth. Or maybe that’s just the grass.
www.omvibratory.com
www.holymountain.com

Ari Joffe

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