Grails
Take Refuge In Clean Living (reissue)

“Take Refuge In Clean Living” is the fourth studio album by the American experimental rock-band GRAILS from Portland, Oregon. It was released in 2008 through Important Records, but this particular CD is a re-issue from 2017 by the Brooklyn-based Temporary Residence Limited imprint. The album clocks in at about 33 minutes only and features 5 tracks (no extra bonuses here, unfortunately), one of which is an obscure re-interpretation of “11th Hour” by instrumental rock-legends, The Ventures. In fact, “Take Refuge In Clean Living” is an album of purely instrumental music. Though Emil Amos and William Slater are credited as vocalists, there is no lyrical content throughout the tracks, just rare sighs and whispering words from the depth of the mix panorama. Stylistically, this album stretches far beyond the tradition of so-called crescendo-cultivating Post-Rock and can definitely appeal to lovers of Psychedelic Rock with Middle Eastern flavor (“Take Refuge” is an undoubted album’s highlight) or even to open-minded Prog-Rock fans thirsty for new forms and visions (consider “Stoned at the Taj Again” and more avant-garde “Clean Living”). The tracks freely and seamlessly flow into each other bringing unpredictable compositional developments, rich atmospheric arrangements for guitars, keyboards, synths, baglama, violin, horns, percussions and drums, multilayered cinematic textures, as well as changing moods and mysteriously nocturnal images. Beautiful album indeed. My only complaint is that it sleeps away too fast because of the short timing. Yes, it could have been twice longer! But still it works fine for me.