Press Play, Record

Sinoia Caves' The Enchanter Persuaded was released in 2002, it sounds amazingly ahead-of-its-time in 2007, yet sounds like it should have been released in 1974. The bedroom project of Jeremy Schmidt, who plays keyboards in Black Mountain, this record is a blast of pure, unadulterated, unedited Prog Rock. That it was made by a guy in his bedroom makes the record even more amazing. Though I could probably drop some names of some obscure bands as a point of comparison, I'm just going to show my uncoolness here and say that this sounds like a long-lost Pink Floyd outtakes album, put together with material from their soundtrack Obscured By Clouds and Meddle. The Enchanter Persuaded plays like a symphonic movement, in the sense that the album--which contains only a half-dozen songs--is book-ended by two wonderfully long, nearly-20 minute songs: "Dwarf Reaching the Arch Wonder" is a straight-up journey into space; it's a quiet, meditative, glacially cold number that will send chills up your spine, while "Sundown In the New Arcades (Milky Way Echo)" is a deep space journey through the depths of the ocean, and it simply ends abruptly, with the sound of the tape machine going off. The three songs in between are short, simple songs; "The Wicker Chair" blends synths with acoustic guitar, "Naro Way" is a Floyd-like folk song, with hazy vocals and a buzzing haze around its melody. This reissue contains a bonus track, "Evil Ball" which concludes the album, and it feels slightly out of place, as it sounds different from the rest of the album in that it features a heavy bass line and Yes-like melodies.

The Enchanter Persuaded may very well be a one-off. I haven't found any kind of information about a follow-up, or even a website. As it stands, it's a rare jewel; I'm happy Jagjaguwar reissued it, and I can tell you it's spent a hell of a lot of time on my stereo. It's a narcotic pleasure, my friends. Seek it out if you want a nice trip.