Pelican

Ataraxia/Taraxis EP

This review originally ran in AP 286.

After a two-year dormancy, instrumental post-metal outfit Pelican have lurched out of the ether for an ambitious four-track EP. Wisely, the quartet avoid the well-trodden road of “epic” guitar rock to deliver textures loaded with lyrical guitar phrasings within over-modulated grit and distortion. The fabulous girth of “Lathe Biosas” feels like a fume-rock convention at a biker bar in the middle of the California salt flats, while the dynamic shifts in “Parasite Colony” are worthy of playing over the credits of your favorite revenge movie as your antihero walks off into the unknown. The opening/closing bookends of “Ataraxia” and “Taraxis” apply dissonant acoustic guitars and treble-laden electrics with some delicate Rhodes piano straight out of the dark-jazz playbook of Bohren & Der Club Of Gore. This is essential listening perfect for your next slow-motion crime spree or while having sex with stoners under blacklight posters.

Southern Lord http://www.southernlord.com

“Taraxis”