With monikers like “Herbcraft” and “Astral Body,” you know it’s going to be time to darken the room, light some incense candles and roll out that yoga mat for some deep meditative experiences. As such, The Astral Body Electric, the new album from New-England underground group Herbcraft, furnishes that saliently spiritual, new-age flavor of ambient psychedelia, best suited for and influenced by oriental philosophies, and which slowly exerts a powerful hypnotism over the listener.
Hallucinatory to say the least, the opening tracks are like a long trek through a mirage-maddened desert. Tinged with a near-east essence, “At Mother’s Gate (Shambala)” (whose title references the hidden Buddhist kingdom) and “A Knock at the Door in your Mind” both waft through a smoky screen of darkly meandering mysticism. They feature organs of a divinatory nature, guitar lines that evoke a relentless burning under the sun, spiritually-aimed lutes, voices that call from across great distances, and an assortment of uncanny textures such as distorted warbles, feral growls, and howling dust-storm winds.
Significantly brighter with rainstick and flute ambiances, “Impermanence” is a gentle reflection lead by an acoustic guitar. “No Land” disperses flutey calls over a dark drum groove and features the only deliberate vocal-based melody. “The Body Electric” slips back into spacey moodiness, rippling haunted textures across its entrancing soundscape. Everything comes and goes in “Full Circle (Eternally)”, as it cycles through energetic percussion, ambient immersions, seraphic cries, and warbling flutes. This sort of music may not mesmerize and captivate you right away, but invest some time in it and soon you’ll find yourself slipping into those haunted ethereal places, the return from which is not always a simple or desirable thing.
