Albums to watch

Ascent

Six Organs of Admittance

Ascent

Thirteenth album from Comets of Fire guitarist Ben Chasny's psychedelia-leaning alt.folk band

ADM rating[?]

7.5

Label
Drag City
UK Release date
20/08/2012
US Release date
21/08/2012
  1. 8.5 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Ascent is a fitting title: the album’s defining feature is extended guitar solos that climb ever higher on the fretboard in a fruitful search of the perfect symbiosis of soaring melody and feedback-encrusted white noise
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  2. 8.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    He’s never been afraid to take listeners out of their woodsy comfort zones and challenge them with bursts of feedback or endless ripples of mantra-like themes
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  3. 8.0 |   NME

    Tracks like ‘Close To The Sky’ and ‘Even If You Knew’ are sprawling, squawking, shrieking examples of elongated psych-rock and gigantic fretwork
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  4. 8.0 |   Q

    Into the ether with prolific guitar voyager. Print edition only

  5. 8.0 |   Uncut

    Ascent sounds like Chasny channelling a great band's alchemical powers to his own ends. Print edition only

  6. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    A quite astonishing record and one which establishes Chasny as a bona fide guitar god
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  7. 8.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    If you’re tempted to go for a heavy dose of head nodding psychedelia any time soon, you probably won’t find a better example released this year
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  8. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Mysterious and enfolding, Ascent seduces. Print edition only

  9. 8.0 |   Blurt

    As Ascent so intrinsically implies, the man remains at his best when he's burning with his old buddies back home, which one could only hope is a dress rehearsal for a full-on Comets reunion
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  10. 7.8 |   Beats Per Minute

    A step up in terms of direction and execution
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  11. 7.5 |   Pitchfork

    The group's obvious enthusiasm for the project is contagious, and together they add another memorable benchmark to Chasny's formidable body of work, clearly having a fantastic time while doing so
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  12. 7.5 |   Prefix

    Despite a sharp shift in direction, the spirit of Ascent floats - sometimes upwards, at times skittish and swooping underneath clouds - but nonetheless rising
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  13. 7.0 |   All Music

    While it sounds less like a single-minded effort from Chasney than it does a high-spirited collective freakout from a reconfigured Comets on Fire, Chasney is still at the core of all the songs
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  14. 7.0 |   Under The Radar

    Closer to his work with Comets On Fire, here Chasny plunges headlong into psych-rock, and he breaks a real sweat when he's not reaching for the next dimension
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  15. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    Chasny has taken all his love of squall and meshed it with his eye for structure, he’s shaped his beautiful playing into thick and downright catchy riffs, and he’s injected a new energy into his project
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  16. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    Here, Chasny reveals himself to be a guitarist capable of an admirable level of intensity, if not pure technical virtuosity
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  17. 6.0 |   The Observer

    How Chasny tells his sprawling, incandescent guitar solos apart, we may never know; this is an album for frenziedly colouring outside the lines
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