Pitchfork

Almost every track on Shelter from the Ash, the third album from California songwriter Ben Chasny to find home on Drag City, features at least two guests. "Jade Like Wine" is the exception. Rather than have Chasny harmonize with Magik Marker Elisa Ambrogio or trade licks with Chavez's Matt Sweeney, he's forced to sing with himself and to double his guitars. It's misery conjuring friends from loneliness. With his guitars and a series of drones and bowed cymbals, Chasny and producer Tim Green unfurl a sound that fits like a bed of comfortable brambles beneath the back of the song's forlorn vagrant: "Left me outside/ In the thorns and the thickets," he pleads via introduction, picking up at verse two with, "Born from the run/ An immediate disgrace."

Much like Bert Jansch wrapping that steadfast but flickering left hand around the worn neck of his guitar, Chasny emphasizes the lows and mids of his own instrument. His melody embraces that somber range, and his repetition serializes as a diary of the desolate. A closing solo trips over itself and recovers before fleeting back to its theme for three more passes. The last one gets truncated, ending on a sigh of retreat, not resolution.

MP3:> Six Organs of Admittance: "Jade Like Wine"
[from Shelter From the Ash; due 11/20/07 on Drag City]