Album Reviews : The Psychic Nature Of Being by Lichens

Released in 2005 on Holy Mountain Records and also on Kranky.

Lichens is the solo project of Chicago based musician Rob Lowe.

The Good : This album is some excellent psyche / drone / experimental / ambient music. It was all recorded in one take, with no edits. Very unique and mesmerizing. Makes for good chill out music. Good music to contemplate the cosmos by. Nothing else really sounds like this. Lots of drones and weird waves of looped, layered sounds here. The finger picked guitars compliment the music very well. The music has a trippy, mystical vibe to it.

The Bad : This music is very left field and is bound to turn off some people. I can see many people saying this is boring. The kind of music that only rewards the patient listener. Nothing you can play in your car and casually listen too. This music demands volume and attention. Very easy to dismiss as silly, weirdo hippy music. The guitar and vocals aren't intricate or sophisticated. The music is very simple and minimal sounding.

In conclusion, I enjoyed this record. Each listen uncovers new sounds. I appreciate the fact that something as dense and layered as this could be made up on the fly. Improv music is hard to judge. This could have probably benefited from some rehearsal and more production. Still sounds fine as is though, but could have potentially been even more of a rewarding listening experience.

Fans of mellow experimental music will probably love this. A very unique listening experience that won't appeal to everyone.

3.8/5

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Lichens
• The
• Psychic
• nature
• of
• being
• Kirlian
• Auras
• Shoreline
• scoring
• You
• are
• excrement
• you
• can
• turn
• yourself
• into
• gold

[RickyShoreSings]

oh, i love rob lowe. my favorite rob lowe performance is wayne's world. i used to like chicago music because i lived there but then i started to get really tired of it. chicago is awesome but it's kinda boring. people are so grumpy and serious haha. do you like sea and cake? one of my ex girlfriends said they were her favorite band and i always hated her for that. i saw them live and i was so relieved that i had to babysit a drunk girl. did i already leave a comment with that story? nice vid!

[YoureWrongImRight]

Sounds better than Edmonton people where people are fat and stupid. And yes, I will review your favorite band, Sea and Cake, and maybe book them for your birthday party. I only like a couple of their albums. The two new ones were pretty uneventful. I also have a Sam Prekop solo album which was so so. Ex girlfriends are a hassel. One of my exes is pregnant now (not by me). Maybe it's Rob Lowes fault.

[bastienazylum]

Nice review thanks. I had never seen that fantastic cover.

[YoureWrongImRight]

Thanks, man. Yeah, I guess only Holy Mountain released this version. The songs are the same though. I loved the live performance you posted. Cheers.

[elvispresly1]

great vid! :) all the albums you have are really cool because of the album covers.

[YoureWrongImRight]

Yeah, I'm a pretty big fan of album art.

[Caligula138]

I saw him open for Sleep... he was a cool dude... He laid out 6 long silken fabrics on the stage one at a time. he meticulously arranged them for a while one after another.... the whole time my friend and i were like "WTF is he doing?!" then he played and it was pretty far out. My friend called him The Metal Bobby Mcferrin!!

[wexerguy90]

Yeah i am gonna own this. Looks amazing

[macleodponeage]

I'll have to get some of this...

[heyjudas]

i took a few art classes in college, and i think one of my professors used to play this. he was divorced and once asked me if i wanted to get drinks and listen to nina simone records. creepy. by the way, that guy IS a sharp dresser.

[YoureWrongImRight]

You'll bliss out for sure.