Six Organs of Admittance: Hexadic

Jason P. Woodbury on February 17, 2015

Following a charming LP of scruffy folk with Skygreen Leopards songwriter Donovan Quinn as New Bums and the launching of a new label, Hermit Hut, guitarist Ben Chasny returns to his enduring Six Organs of Admittance project for Hexadic. The results are a sprawling collection of songs, rooted in his newly developed Hexadic System, a compositional method based on the processes of mystic Ramon Llull. The songs are as wild and raging as his loosest work with psychedelic band Comets On Fire and his experimental trio Rangda. On songs like “The Ram” and “Future Verbs,” the record sounds like a fusion of free jazz and lonesome beach surfrock. “Maximum Hexadic” charges with punk verve, and album highlight “Hollow River” suggests a doom-metal spaghetti western, with plodding single piano notes providing a heavy counterbalance to Chasny’s exploratory fuzz guitar. The record marks bold new territory for Six Organs, occasionally harkening to Chasny’s American Primitive roots, but mostly striking off into wonderful, weird outer spaces.

Artist: Six Organs of Admittance
Album: Hexadic
Label: Drag City