Imagine Jerry Garcia jamming with an indie singer-songwriter type – a more reined-in and manly Conner Oberst, maybe – and you’ve got the basic gist of Arbouretum’s sound. ‘Rites Of Uncovering’ sounds as if it was jammed out on a moonlit porch, through amps turned a little low so as not to startle the musicians into complete wakefulness. The music is full of long, questing guitar jams, stark, simple melodies and tuneful, introspective vocals, but it has a certain heft and sinew to it as well. The jams have an underlying rigour, a grounding sense of melody and structure that hold them together, and there’s a brooding, introspective undercurrent to the gentle melodies. The guitar playing is largely feel-driven, but it does avoid Neil Young-ish raggedness most of the time. Drawing on acid, folk, Americana and a touch of guitar noise, these songs have an organic warmth and expansiveness that drew me in.

 

The album seems to lapse into a pleasant but obscure haze at times, but there’s generally an absorbing moment around the next measure. It often sounds timeless, or at least like some undeservedly forgotten relic from the original hippie/acid era. A little extra something – perhaps a larger variety of percussion, or experiments with extraneous instruments, might have made for a more diverse experience, but as it is, this album succeeds at what it sets out to do.

Year of Release: 2007
Label: Thrill Jockey