USX    

The Valley Path

Neurot Recordings 2011

On the Valley Path, USX (aka, U.S. Christmas) delivers a single 38 minute-ish track that dwells in the distant fields of doom.  This album is very earthy, and at times has a Native American tinge to its lumbering notes.  This is evident at the 2:30 mark where a deep shamanistic drum adds a ceremonial shade to the psychedelic vocals and lengthy guitar solo.  The whole texture of the passage is lumbering in its ritualistic swaying.  Minimal notes plink in a steady pattern while the drums continue to build and the vocals, though dry and distant, become more insistent.  Pieces of reverb and muted feedback provide breaks within the song, almost like breaks between individual tracks, however the naturalistic feel dominates the entirety of the album.  The second movement is somewhat more of a rock statement with its shimmering guitar and extended soloing that borders on self-indulgent.  It's almost like a slow-motion arena jam.  The fourth movement is almost a spiritual release of plodding, western doom, somewhere between Earth and Across Tundras.  Upwards drifting riffs roll in like storm clouds on the prairie.  And the rolling drums resurrect the shamanistic quality of the music.  The repetitive songwriting creates an ambient effect.  However, at the 34 minute mark the song takes a larger step towards southern doom rock.  Organ and lush guitars add a gospel angle to the music.  The Valley path is an album to get lost in, like the Dakota bad lands.  You can find spiritual enlightenment within those minimalistic and harsh lands, or you can find death.