The Odyssey Cult has its roots in Miller’s improvised solo electric guitar performances dating back to 2013. Though still almost entirely instrumental, the two volume debut expands his original concept of ‘solo electric guitar performance’ to something much broader in narrative scope and is as indebted to the great minimalists and loop pioneers as it is to guitar oriented Krautrock, cult film soundtrack music and the great feedback-riding, amp destroyers of the 60s to present day.
In departure from the more structured song work of most of Miller’s bands over the last 16 years, The Odyssey Cult albums are based in improvisation. Loops, cut-ups, collages and tonal performances (rather than melodic ones,) often form the engine of movement and narrative. The Odyssey Cult is the sound of the collapse of a prehistoric age. Giant amplifiers and fuzz bass loops smash into one another until only crackling ANS transmissions are left floating above the fray.
A prayer of poetry scrawled in feedback, a painting in sand of the dreams of imaginary birds, and raising the noise-rock quotient significantly, the rhythm section of Feral Ohms makes multiple appearances throughout the two albums as foil to Miller’s screaming amps, echoing extended guitar oriented power trio freak outs like White Heaven’s ‘Levitation’, a deconstructed mid 70s Crazy Horse and the heat-blistered primal workouts of High Rise. Vol.1 and Vol.2 are an artistic statement intended to be sat down and fully engaged with, a journey, an epic poem, a meditation, a long rich dream that loosens all sense of space and time- ultimately confusing history, moment and self.
Those that take the time to enter and feel sound, creation and performance will surely be rewarded by the joy and beauty of The Odyssey Cult.
For fans of Ash Ra Temple, Popol Vuh, 70’s Soundtracks, Fripp & Eno, Guru Guru UFO, Faust, Hendrix Woodstock feedback meltdowns, The great PSF power trios, Flying Saucer Attack, This Heat and disorienting ambient music.
TRACK LISTING
1. Olympus EES-2
2. The Abbot?s Yard
3. Cyclops, Tell Them It Was I!
4. Lotus; Torraloom, Torraluum
5. Laestrygonians
6. The Tongue And Hoof Of Blazes Boylan
7. Thick With Woods Where The Wild Goats
8. In Black Poplar Grove, Calypso At Her Loom
