STAINED GLASS

Stained Glass opens very gently and melodiously with a beautiful vocal line by Toby accompanied by nice sax, violin, and vibraphone reminiscent of motW's Part The Second. You're enjoying motW and the world is perfectly content. Then a distorted organ rips through the music like a tear in the space-time continuum.

It slowly begins to force you away from the terrestrial world. The sounds of motW begin to fade away, replaced by the violent ebb and flow of a wormhole. You're David Bowman. You've just passed Jupiter. Soon you exit the cosmic shortcut. You're floating, isolated, alone in out space. Toby's voice returns strange and distorted announcing your arrival.

The music takes over at this point. It's psychedelic. It's wonderful. It's a trance. You stop being a listener of the music. Instead you're like a statue unable to act as wave after wave of sound hits you and immerses you. The sound reflects the nature of outer space. It drifts without purpose or meaning. It just is. The music isn't there to entertain you, or teach you, or to even go anywhere. It's a perfect existence without meaning like a quartet from John Cage.

Then the music regroups. It suddenly begins progressing somewhere, slowly, like being caught in the gravitational field of some far off stellar mass. The object makes itself known. It's Trey Spruance's guitar solo. It demands your attention. It hits you viscerally. It sounds like bursts of static on some lonely interstellar traveler's radio caused by jets of radiation being emitted from some supermassive black hole.

All of a sudden it stops. Shortly after Bodie reenters with a simple beat. Like a tribal shaman in some ancient ceremony, it announces the end of your astral projection and marks your return to Earth. You return to your room and sounds of motW before fading to silence.

That's Stained Glass. I haven't given you any idea of what it sounds like, if you'll like it, etc. I'm not sure what it sounds like. I know what it feels like though. That's more important. If you want to experience this, buy it, listen to it. It sounded like garbage pretty much my first two times through. Then it clicked. Once again this band as completely amazed me.

This composition is 19:55 long. During that time, light would have traveled 222 million miles. After listening to this, you will feel like you have also.