Urdog Garden Of Bones CD

From the sound of this disc, the members of this trio had at some point immersed themselves in the artier edges of '70s progressive rock. The keening and careening Farfisa organ in particular bears echoes of the likes of Pink Floyd (at their spaciest and more dissonant), Soft Machine, and a number of Krautrock groups. There's a foreboding angularity to their tempos and melodic progressions that eschews the accessibility of more commercial art rock. How does it sound different from those early-'70s excursions, recorded about three decades before this effort was unleashed? It's hard to say, though it's not explicitly derivative. It kind of stakes out a middle turf between the less commercial journeys of Pink Floyd and the far less commercial instrumental endeavors of Soft Machine, once that band had decided to pretty much eschew vocals and conventional songs. Urdog, it should be noted, do not totally eschew vocals; "Long Shadows" is graced by ethereal female singing as a picked folk-art guitar and astral organ wind around each other, for instance. These musicians are skilled at evoking mysterious moods with their pounding drums, biting guitar, and above all that gothic organ, though like many such endeavors that walk the line between trance-like songs and trance-space, it gets a little wearisome by the time the finish line's in sight. ~ Richie Unterberger

Includes bonus tracks.

Audio Mixers: Keith Souza; Urdog.

Recording information: Machines With Magnets, E. Providence, RI (01/2004).