Album Details

• Artist: Incandescent Sky
• Album: Four Faradays In A Cage
• Label: It's Twilight Time
• Year of Release: 2010
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2010-07-26

Incandescent Sky give themselves a lot of space for their improvised progressive jams; only two of the six tracks here is under nine minutes. Yet the songs on "Four Faradays In A Cage" are never meandering or self-indulgent. The band takes chances by incorporating fusion with psych-a recipe for tepid, navel-gazing ooze if done wrong, and given the scope of exploration, each song bleeds into the other in ways that allow this record to be listened to as one track as well as individually, stand on their own pieces.

The evocative "September Song" opens things up, literally, being driven by the long, processed lines of guitarist Don Sullivan and heated percussion of drummer John Orsi. "Antarctica" shares with that continent an icy sheen that occasionally explodes in a wall of noise. The relatively short "Concrete Glass, Steel," is a study in tension until it explodes with color and angular lines.

It is the closer, the title track, that commands the most notice. Clocking in at over sixteen minutes, with no space wasted, the song is underpinned by frantic percussion and swirling keyboards, before the guitar takes over and sends the song into interstellar overdrive. Its insistent tone is maintained throughout, making in an exhausting but exciting experience.

Apparently this record was born out of fall 2007 jams that were so inspiring, the band decided to reform after almost four years of not recording together. That most of the ideas on "Four Faradays In  A Cage" came from a single session (with post-session production from band keyboardist John MacNeill) makes this a mighty achievement . Incandescent Sky return with a bagful of impressive ideas and daring, and this record explores all of them to powerful effects. This is as meditative and free as any of their records, and may be their best.

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