Caspian - You Are the Conductor (The Mylene Sheath)

Having lavished deserved praise on this Beverly, MA (greater Boston) instrumental group’s The Four Trees double album debut three years ago, relishing the artistic merit splashed all over its gatefold sleeve and the corresponding magisterial music—and justly, I think, referring interested listeners to similarly alpine instrumental glistening guitars made by Henry Frayne of Lanterna, Scenic, The Dears, For Against, Chameleons, and Slowdive—now, one album later (the similarly-inclined Tertia), this CD reissue of the group’s 2005 debut EP is more of the same only even more commanding! It’s hard to find vocals-less music more gripping, heavy, pounding, yet so intensely beautiful, it feels like you’re flying solo over an Icelandic Glacier in the dead of white winter, as you find on a typical track such as the blasting “Further In.” The two guitars employ heavy effects, but they are like a blizzard over the big bass and drums – powerful to behold from inside a warm, safe room, and just a little dangerous if their intoxication leads you into the midst of their maelstrom. Right through the epic build of the nine-minute closer “Last Rites,” Caspian will hold you in their thrall like maw in their hands, and never once will you miss a human’s words. (mylenesheath.com)