TAKE REFUGE IN CLEAN LIVING

After the excellent BOI album, one of the most adventurous post rock album ever,, Grails came back with their fourth album, that goes way more than "one step further". Indeed, with this album, they don't just stretch the boundaries, they just trash them away. If there is still a post- rock base, Clean Living is also a psychedelic album and even more a Krautrock album by its Ash Ra Temple and Popol Vuh's respective Eastern Asia influences and some slight Nektar influences as well. The artwork is really fascinating , especially on the inside illustrations (and fairly close to BOI's artwork), the line-up remaining stable after losing their violin player before BOI's recording.

Only five tracks on this album, the longest running at 8 minutes, for a total just over the half- hour, it's quite a contrast to GYBE's second release, a one-track EP lasting some 28 mins. Yup this is short, especially compared to their prior excellent BOI release, and this one being even better, you get a sense of frustration and a feel of "a little too few" to quench the thirst and hunger. Plenty of moody music, still being of to the post rock doctrine, but plenty of instrumental psych evasion

If you're a post rock nutcase, I suggest that it would be a shame to deprive you of the slow unravelling of Grails' pure post rock caterpillar into a psychedelic Kraut butterfly. A long crescendo lasting four albums. However, if you're a little tired of the post rock clichés and their wanting to become the next GYBE! because they all sound grosso modo the same, than plunge directly BOI or TRICL to get something quite different, yet still very much post-rock.