U.S. Christmas

Run Thick In the Night

Neurot Records 2010

American Doomy Space-rock, dry like the dustbowl of the 1930s yet vast and expansive in sound is brought to life on Run Thick In the Night.  A plodding, almost ritualistic pacing blows over like a cloud of sand on In the Night.  Guitar jams, nebular synth, and tumbling drum rolls populate the sparse landscape of the songs skyward looking innards.  Nate Halls' dry and layered vocals sound like a soul-crushed version of Bob Dylan.  An ominous yet motivated riff supports alien synth forming a raucous and repetitive motion on Wolf On Anareta.  A lazy and tranquil acoustic strum on Fire Is Sleeping breathes the spirit of a weathered traveler across the song's  notes.  Fonta Flora broods with windswept malice, deceptively tranquil, yet a vein of sorrow and death lurks just beneath the surface, somewhat like Earth with a dusting of snow.  Keeping in line with a ritualistic feeling, Ephraim In The Stars dances like a backwoods with, dual male/female vocals drift across the song like ether.  It conjures images of a nocturnal communion between hidden country-folk and the Ibex heavens.  A methodical beat and a western texture shimmer in the desert heat of Deep Green.  Serpentine tambourine rattles slither across washed out melodies and brooding bass-lines which all intertwine to bath the listener in somber contemplation.  After awhile the songs start to blend together which can be looked at in two ways, they are unified musically and/or the album drags a little due to its length.  On Run Thick In The Night U.S. Christmas has created an album that bridges the gaps of Hawkwind and Earth to form an astral contemplation that is rooted on the barren prairies of the midwest.  The album is perhaps a little too long for its own good, however you can certainly get lost underneath the starry skies while listening to it.