OM
Al Cisneros: bass / vocals
Chris Hakius: drums
I saw OM two years prior at the Echo in Los Angeles as they opened for Comets on Fire, another Bay Area heavy psychedelic band, and admittedly, had a hard time enjoying myself. OM can be somewhat polarizing in regards to likeability, but perhaps I just wasn't ready for them, so I have given them another chance.
I got word this stoner-doom experimental outfit would be gracing the Independent in their hometown of San Francisco, as they tour in support of their third release, “Pilgrimage”, on Southern Lord Records, so I grabbed an innocently sweet girl and dragged her to the show with me. I believe she gave up on them in 10 minutes, but my experience turned out to be quite insightful.
OM is a mirror that reveals all the excess material and easily accumulated baggage one has garnered over a lifetime of listening to music, an image too ugly to accept. At first, the stripped down wall of sound that slowly fills you with waves-crashing-upon-the-shore bass lines, chant-like monotone vocals, and tribally cardiac percussion, is an assault to one’s normal musical perceptions. Your mind screams, "What the hell is this crap?" yet ironically the subconscious body begins to move with the rhythms channeled through the duo upon the stage.
The word itself, Om, is most often associated with meditation. According to various Mantras, the vibrational frequency of Om is the sound or hum of the universe. When chanted, it can dissolve the mind of the layered caking that comes with everyday trivialities and bring an inner peace.
Though I do believe meditation would help in a modern world of crumbling attention spans and shiny objects, I am not hear to preach from my soapbox. While experiencing this local San Francisco band, which consists of the former rhythm section of the disbanded stoner-doom metal outfit, Sleep, my faculties slowly give in and internal struggles of acceptance begin to choose sides.
Upon listening, this antithesis of radio length pop songs seems more like an exercise in musical tolerance than an evening of cotton candy and elevated heart rates. Everything you've been told to love in sing along lyrics, scream inducing frontmen, and infectious melodies has been discarded.
However, without any thought or conscious acknowledgement on my part, the cup is slowly filled to overflowing and all previous conceptions of music, thoughts and worries spill over the brim and evaporate. There is no categorization, genre holing, labeling within the brains musical library. There are no thoughts of trying to learn their songs on guitar to impress a lady friend. Worries of work, relationships and the world have faded away. All thats left...is OM.
The last bass note falls and the lights come on replacing the streaming shades of purple, green, orange and red. As I look upon the faces of those shuffling their feet towards the exit, a sad realization sets in that a large handful of people there did not have the same calming, eviscerating experience I just had. The girl at my side is one of them.
I am always surprised at OM's popularity. Their brand of heavy psychedelia is definitely not for all, but when the connection is made, its a much needed breath of fresh perspective on a world thought process so disturbingly intertwined with American media and entertainment outlets.
Check out the band’s other albums "Variations on a Theme" (2005) and "Conference of the Birds" (2006) at Holy Mountain Records, and give them a spin in a quiet environment with the psychedelic of your choice. And if OM happens to be journeying through your hometown, drag yourself and your stony cohorts out to have all former notions of what music should be, pummeled away, only to leave with a transcendentally calm grin chiseled upon your face.
- Lucifer Sam
Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/variationsontheme
Homepage - http://www.omvibratory.com
Holy Mountain records - http://www.holymountain.com
Southern Lord records - http://www.southernlord.com
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