Rhyton are a psychedelic underground supergroup fronted by Dave Charles Shuford (aka D.Charles Speer) on guitar, mandolin and saz (a Turkish string instrument).
Shuford has been a member of No Neck Blues Band (NNCK) for 15 years and his partners in crime here are Jimy Sei Tang (Psychic Ills) on bass and Spencer Herbst (Messages, Matta Llama) on percussion.
The pretentious gibberish of the press release does the trio no favours. Is it really the band's wish that their "edifice of sound" be intent on "not grabbing for the micro-constituent"?
This kind of psycho-babble goes with the territory, as if the blurb has to somehow match the imagined altered states of the musicians.
This album was recorded in just three days in New York's Black Dirt Studios by fellow NNCK member Jason Meagher.
It comprises five trippy improvised instrumentals that you imagine have been edited down from extended Grateful Dead style jams.
The LP version is limited to 500 copies and there are just 200 hand-numbered CD copies - all a somewhat redundant exercise given that unlimited digital versions will doubtless circulate freely on the web.
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It opens with the slow grinding rhythms of Stone Colored but gets more interesting with the ten minute freeform noise of Teké, the album's centrepiece.
The spooky effects and tribal beat of Dale Odaliski could be from a soundtrack to a horror b-movie while the closing track (Shank Raids) is a showcase for Shuford's impressive guitar moves.
Despite the countercultural intent, sprawling pieces like Stone Colored and the 12 minute Pontian Grave are not so radically different from self indulgent prog-rock monstrosities but, at its best, this is an album with some worthy space-rock moments and well worth seeking out.
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