Shackleton & Six Organs Of Admittance: Jinxed By Being (Vinyl 2xLP)
What might appear to be the most unlikely collaboration of 2024 proves also to be one of the most invigorating listens of the year. Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance are in full aural/metaphysical alignment on Jinxed By Being: a no-brainer fusion of Shackleton’s bass heavy cosmic dread and Six Organs’ ritual folksong.
Longtime listeners know that both Shackleton and Six Organs of Admittance have been unafraid to pursue their muse into any and all encroaching depth of darkness or outer boundary of potential dissonance. They also share that ol’ maverick psychedelic ritual transcendental music vibe, don’t they? And a fascination with repetition and cycles. And a mutual inspiration drawn from alternative tunings and literature… all this considered, it’s been basically inevitable that Ben Chasny and Sam Shackleton would work together.
Jinxed By Being finds Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance delighting in this synthesis, revelling in unique sonic textures, esoteric deliveries, and new reinventions. Sam’s vocals — a rare occurrence — find melody with Ben’s on several tracks; elsewhere on the record, drum samples by Chasny (recorded in Six Organs’ embryonic stage) are re-sequenced anew by Shackleton.
The first single, “Stages of Capitulation”, captures Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance’s timely meeting in a marvelously organic playground of world beats, with acid guitar and deep bass oozing throughout. As they chant an arcane ritual, a widescreen stereo image of their exotic environs expands into a mix alive with details, flashing from left to right and back again. Chasny’s music video provides a potent incense to burn through the track’s seven-minute runtime.
Against the categorisation of perceived genre rather than intention, encounters like Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance may never have found themselves sitting next to each other, beyond alphabets and other institutional organising principles. Rearrange your libraries — or you might miss getting Jinxed By Being.
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The Voice and the Pulse
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Open Your Heart
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The Grip of the Flesh
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Stages of Capitulation
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The Sign of the Dove
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Electrical Storm
- Spring Will Return/Oliver’s Letter