Pedal Steel Transmission
In the Winter, It Makes the Dead Grass Look Green
2
This should be called cosmic country. Although loosely resting on the tired old sawhorse of country-rock and blues, it is as if the sawhorse has been rigged, welded, and retrofitted for interstellar exploration. The songs on this disc jerk to and fro on an exploration of inner/outer space. Imagine Sonic Youth circa 1988 performing as the back-up band for Waylon Jennings after he took a fistful of heavy psychedelics, and you begin to get a feeling for what this album sounds like.
It opens up with the track “Sorted,” a song that builds to a tension only to be resolved with some graceful guitar work. From that point on, the album builds up steam. In fact, the second track is a ten-minute workout that approaches “freak out” territory with their sonic exploration midway through. This is not unnatural, either. Several tracks on this disk stretch well past the five-minute marker. But for the most part, there is very little slack in the quality of the material. The only flaw I can find in this release is the sound quality itself. Throughout, several of the songs sound flat and one senses some quality time spent in a studio would more readily approach the true sound of Pedal Steel Transmission, or at least, the raucous crescendo I imagine them to approach in concert.
Pedal Steel Transmission: http://www.pedalsteeltransmission.com
