Ben Chasny has been making music at the helm of Six Organs Of Admittance since the late 90s, issuing releases at a fairly prolific rate of knots.
Hexadic has taken a little longer, not that he’s been resting easy. The three-year gap since Ascent is partly down to his collaborative work, but also the fact that he spent most of 2013 working on a new system of music based on the ‘combinatorial processes’ of 13th-century logician Ramón Llull. If this sounds rather heavy, that’s because it is. This album is the first manifestation of Chasny’s new Hexadic System, which essentially creates a framework over which he and the band can let their unconscious minds gallop free. Thus we have ululating ambience (Vestige), great screes of noise-rock (Wax Chance, Maximum Hexadic, _Sphere Path Code _C) and some wholly unexpected Spaghetti Western flourishes (Hesitant Grand Light). At the heart of it all lies Chasny’s fascination with the tangible nature of sound itself, distorting his guitar drones with feedback and pure volume. As you might expect, Hexadic isn’t an easy listen, but it’s a record that, on repeated plays, more than rewards your persistence.
