Praise for Grails’ Black Tar Prophecies Vol. 4 from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Once we got over our initial disappointment, that the track ‘I Want A New Drug’, on the Grails‘ long in the works 4th volume in their Black Tar Prophecies series, was not, in fact, a Huey Lewis & The News cover, we could move on, and proceed to get good and lost in the Grails’ glorious sprawling psychedelic post rock.

The aforementioned ‘New Drug’, and its second half counterpart, seem to be more intro and interlude, consisting of deep whirling black shimmer, disembodied metallic clang, haunting distant voices, reverb and rumbling distortion, hazy drifting ambience, strange effected samples, and muted murky pulses, which separate the musical meat of Black Tar Prophecies 4. The first of which is a brooding, majestic, cinematic post rock epic, all slow swelling melodies, big muscular drumming, guitars that chime and buzz, slipping from spidery melodic filigree, to metallic chug and back again, like Godspeed crossed with Scenic crossed with some Rachel’s mixed in.

Strings soar and sing over some Morricone-ish desert twang, the various tendrils of melody interwoven into lush almost dronescapes. It’s all very soundtracky, even more so on the other two main tracks, lots more piano, tons of space, mysterious ambience and atmosphere, woozy bass, pizzicato strings, melancholy minor key melodies, definitely a chamber music vibe, also an eighties sort of soundtrack feel, way more mellow than the other Black Tar installments. But somehow more refined, more minimal, more moody, sure it’s less psychedelic, but it’s still definitely Grails, just exploring another facet of their ever evolving sound, which even in its heavier moments, still included many of these same elements.

Gorgeous stuff for sure. Definitely curious where volume 5 will take us…

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.