Third LP by Austin’s Spencer Stephenson aka BOTANY, bends the beat-driven path carved by the composer’s first two records into meterless cosmic territory, juxtaposing free jazz arrhythmia with cathedral-lling harmony, ringing on the temple walls with soaring grandeur. A psych-inflected scrapbook of atmospheres with tremendous sonic and emotional breadth.
In essence Deepak Verbera is a soundscape record created through methods usually found in hip-hop; vinyl samples, looped vocal phrases, pulsing bass, and warm synths all shimmer with kosmische-indebted splendor, like Popol Vuh with MPCs and a stack of secondhand records. “Whose Ghost” opens the album, challenging the listener to endure an Albert Ayler-style clamour of argumentative drums and brass. Then follows the library-music-inspired “Has Appeared” prior to the ascendant, “Ory (Joyous Toil)”. Its incense laden sister song “Burning From the Edges Inward” plays like a mini-album unto itself, seamlessly shifting moods with each passage as rolling waves of acoustic piano diffuse into smoked-out guitar drones and witch-like choirs. Side A ends with “Outer Verberum,” a guitar-heavy track which can only be described as “free-psych”. Tracks like “Gleaning Gleaming” are built out of micro-snippets of soul records that cascade over themselves to become something wholly incomparable to their source.
Tracks:
01 Whose Ghost
02 Appears (Mini Verberum)
03 Ory (Joyous Toil)
04 Burning From the Edges Inward
05 Outer Verberum
06 Clean Lungs
07 Gleaning Gleaming
08 Needam / Wish To
09 Valediction
10 Orange Hits the Pupil