Underwater Underground

New recordings from formerly Eric Trip-connected Elevator To Hell guy, Ron Bates, again a one-man-band. Recorded in a windowless room in an urban self-storage facility over the first third of 2001, this new releases finds Orange Glass once again as a one-man band, but with a sound that is fuller than ever. Quiet beauty erupts into frenzied crescendos, and fragile vocals lay back to back with guitar waves that hypnotize, then shake you from your reverie. "Slender Tongues" is My Bloody Valentine meets Pavement, while "Brazil" sounds like a Palace song played by Neil Young in 1969. The closing track, "Escher", is something else altogether, as rock balladry becomes overtaken and overwhelmed by a rapturous wall of chiming guitars. Alternately subdued and sublime, 'Underwater Underground' is, among other things: an epic in 30 minutes, best played at ear-shattering volumes, heartbreaking, hummable, too long in the making, a great artist's best record to date.