Beautiful wartime blues from Sarin Smoke, the collaborative project of Tom Carter of Charalambides and Gabe Swanson of D Yellow Swans, both arguably two of the more influential people in underground psychedelic and noise rock today. Is it possible to imagine ?contemporary? psych rock without Charalambides? And Swanson is THE noise sensei, shredding in D Yellow Swans and mastering recordings for new psych lords such as Robedoor, Pocahaunted, Raccoon-oo-oon and Family Undergound. On "Smoke Screen" witness two psych rock heavy weights conduct dual burning guitar rituals, and in the process create a beautifully dark and, of course, smoky atmosphere that is at times reminiscent of Neil Young?s soundtrack for the film Dead Man, the blissfully sad beauty of Loren Conners and at times Jutok Kaneko and Kousokuya?s cracked cosmic blues. Light into dark seems to be the theme through out this recording. Bright beautiful strings fall apart as black clouds of low-end hum envelope everything, painting a picture of the ethereal. ?Phasing of Malooch? begins the album pleasantly enough with high shimmering notes gently strummed into a beautiful pattern until eventually everything goes dark and heavy with a bluesy wall of black sludge slowly creeping up to create a very heavy atmosphere. On ?Russian Waterfall? guitar strings slowly build tension rhythmically, becoming haunting, but staying minimal with soft but dark amplifier feedback growing with intensity, the deep low end complimenting the shimmering notes that emerge to float above and eventually dissolve into the softest whitest brightest light imaginable creating beautiful contemplative music. The way the amplifiers hum and feedback can only be described as organic and I?m guessing this playing was done with minimal effects, the shimmering and humming of these two guitars is just too damn beautiful for me to believe otherwise. ?Blood Window? continues the blues drift with a tone reminiscent of the beginning of The Door?s ?The End?. Dark and moody guitar notes slowly descend until almost disappearing, eventually dissolving into a sound that I can only describe as the soundtrack to a beautiful desert dreamscape, slowly getting darker, ala, Sir Richard Bishop?s latest darker stuff and Six Organs of Admittance?s doomier moments, getting heavier and heavier until eventually you find yourself inside a black hole. No shit. This is intense like Fushitsusha?s first album on PSF or the second side of Mainliner?s "Psychedelic Polyhedron." The last song ?Mingle Stepping the Death Trail? again, continues with the blues drift scraping along, eventually developing a beautiful bright melody until the guitars fall apart again, getting deeper, heavier, using repetition to create a trance inducing rock that is narcotic, burnt and perfect. Super nice one-time pressing of 652 hand-numbered copies on 180gram vinyl with killer cover art by Liz Harris a.k.a. Grouper. Also includes a bonus CD that didn?t come with my copy, so I really can?t speak to that, but I bet it?s good. 9/10 -- Nathan Young (8 January, 2008)