Pitchfork

This excerpt from the 30-minute DVD included with Lichens' forthcoming album Omns on Kranky gives a good idea of the parameters of this solo project from Rob Lowe, singer and bassist from 90 Day Men. The guitar work, in which a single string pluck might be allowed to resonate for 10 seconds or more, might bring to mind the ghostly ambience of Loren MazzaCane Connors or the steely patience of Oren Ambarchi. But then Lowe inserts his own wordless vocals-- captured and stretched via pedals-- into mystical drones that sound like they should be echoing across some desert somewhere. Or maybe a forest: spliced into the live footage, recorded at a performance at the Empty Bottle, are scenes shot in a Midwestern woods, the sunlight streaming through the trees as oriental rugs curiously line the forest floor. The close-ups of Lowe's face as he howls into the void verge on melodramatic overkill, but the meditative clip retains a certain hypnotic power.

[excerpt from the video half of the Omns CD/DVD; out now on Kranky]