Back in 2017, I stumbled across an expansive and excellent release melding stoner, doom, and post-rock by a band called Kylver. Since then, I've gone back to The Island multiple times, lured back by the album's uncanny knack for grandiose yet somehow agile storytelling. Which is why I was thrilled when the band reached out with new music in the shape of The Gobi, their upcoming album. On it, I found an even more windswept version of their sound, the Kylver mix unfurled even further to create an epic and moving release. My favorite track on it is, happily, the one I get to premiere here now: closer "Allghoi", which probably contains my favorite guitar/synth work of the year. Head on down for a taste yourself!
Man, those synths! I love all of the varied timbres they take on this track, from the deep resonance of the backing lines to the scintillating pitch of the main progressions. Add in that ponderous bass and the guitars which can just explode at any moment, and you've got yourself one hell of a thread for the track to unspool. And unspool it does; the close to fourteen minutes of runtime for this beast is used extremely well by Kylver to let these musical ideas have their time, elaborating on them in all sorts of interesting ways. But, as is the Kylver way, they never lose track of the basic and moving groove of the track; just head on over to around the six and a half minute mark and listen to that gorgeous riff play out before it slams right into a truck-load of groove.
There's a lot more of this excellent songwriting on the rest of the album; it's been one of my favorites this year to unwind to. It's one of those releases that you listen to at home, lights off and speakers very loud as you let it take you under. You can anticipate all of that by heading on over to their Bandcamp above and pre-ordering this wonderful release; it drops November 14th.