August Born

At this point, Ben Chasny can do whatever he wants. If he wants to make an easy-going, collaborative album with Hiroyuki Usui, so be it. If they decide to name the project August Born in honour of the two sharing the same birthday, hey — that’s pretty fun. My attitude toward August Born is appropriate since Ben Chasny is the man behind Six Organs of Admittance, the long-running solo bedroom project that (casually) channels, — with great perceptive foresight — the ancient spirituals and folk music that have since come to express the moods and feelings of so many music fans and musicians of our day. The man stood at the very beginning of the modern pysch-folk movement and has since rightly received the status of a true innovator. So if Drag City are going to support Chasny as he sets up and improvises with Usui — who used to drum for legendary psych-rockers Fushitusha and played in an early incarnation of mellow psychedelic mainstays Ghost — chances are it’s going to be a bit of alright. And it is; August Born fluidly moves through ten joyously moody acoustic pieces of freethinking atmosphere and loose song structure. Fans of Chasny’s Six Organs work will definitely dig this, and it’s a welcome addition to his already prolific discography. Not essential, per se, but definitely welcome.