Trip Hill – ‘Takes From Oblivion’ (2000)
Trip Hill opens the first track of ‘Takes From Oblivion’ sounding for all the world like Sonic Boom [late of Spacemen 3], delivering a comprehensive guitar driven bit of wanderlust that draws the listener in with rapture and delight … though in this case I don’t think that he’s so much playing in the style of, but rather setting an atmospheric stage from which he can branch out both lyrically and instrumentally.
The second number ‘The Choice’, is a choice bit of garage psych that’s laced with all the right hooks and momentum to carry you forward into an adventure that began so long ago that I care not to consider the years that have swept by me.
The rest of the album is even more delightful, often haunting [consider ‘The World Over There’], spiraling in and out like a strobe light of sound that bounces and simmers, all while dancing on the edge of a comet streaking its way into earth’s orbit. Yes, there are plenty of effects reverb feedback and wah wah to hold your attention, and while the album isn’t heavily layered per se, the amount of structured sounds that ebb in and around the vocals will chill you with delight, as if Takes From Oblivion is some sort of glorious long lost body of work from those hazy 60’s, recently discovered, and sure to melt across the frontal lobe of your mind.
Once you’ve dimmed the lights, settled in, and listened to this body of work several times, it will begin to dawn on you that Trip Hill has laid down a dialectic foundation based around ten tracks, ten movements: ‘Song From Oblivion’, ‘Third Jam’, ‘The World Over There’, ‘Orange Flavours’, ‘Promise’, ‘Headback I’, ‘Headback II’, ‘The Golden Kite Of The Silver Wind’, ‘Intro ’95’ and ‘Swomi’. All of the songs on the album either ask questions or give answers, though without those ten essential tracks, the album could not exist, as those tracks tie everything together.
Jenell Kesler
Trip Hill – ‘Takes From Oblivion’ (2000)
