ABUNAI! -- 'ROUND-WOUND'
(CD on Camera Obscura, PO Box 5069, Burnley VIC 3121, Australia)

ABUNAI! -- "Deep Mu Flux +2"
(10" lathe cut on Camera Lucida, same address)

   Ah, the long awaited third album from Boston's own kosmic jokers and what
a mighty Traummaschine it is! While their previous two offerings had a
mysterious chameleonic aura until you got really close, 'Round-Wound' has
four hearts tuned to the same psychedelic beat throughout. There may be none
of Dan Parmenter's wonderful olde English myrder ballads this time around
(no "songs" at all, actually) but there's close to 80 minutes of Abunai! in
free-flowing psychic flight.

   Gently dipped in a saucerful of secrets, dripping in kraut-rock splendour
and oozing iridescent heroic colour, the 21 sections that make up this
remarkable web of sound were assembled from a chest of "Improv and Trip-out"
tapes informally-recorded over a three year period at Abunai! World
Hindquarters. Carefully chosen, edited, layered (apparently, the opening cut
"The Sound Museum" has 20 tracks playing simultaneously!) [Abunai! site note
of clarification: that's 20 simultaneous *group performances*]) and sequenced
(for the most part) almost seamlessly, we're treated to the aural equivalent
of a liquid lightshow. Enter through the portals of antiquity and sit in
meditation as strange electronic music reverberates throughn the labyrinth
flashing a myriad of fleeting, haunting images as patterns form and trails of
colour dissolve. Each trip opens new doors; each door leads to a different
trip.

   Abunai! have a massive intellectual library, filled with rainbows,
esoteric muses and arcane sound. There's the full-on sonic blitz (an immense
flood of sound) as Brendan Quinn (guitar) kicks on the fuzz, sustain and
spatial FX to lay a dense backdrop for Kris Thompson (organ, synth and
theremin) to colour with layers of ethereal swirling sound as Joe Turner's
heavy pulse drumming and Dan Parmenter's powerful rumbling bass push the
machine relentlessly on. Dan's meandering bass-lines lay oh-so-gentle
footprints through the more blissed-out and delicate pieces as Brendan's
gossamer-winged guitar and Kris' intricate keyboards tap into the cosmic
flow, weave majestically and then spiral down like coloured rain. Some pieces
are altogether much harsher and incisive, with helicopter drums and
shimmering, almost San-Fran-acid-guitar, chasing (Country Joe and The)
Fish-like organ moves (eerily so in "2CT-7") while others are densely
throbbing lazily-spun across sprawling, organically evolving spacescapes.
With succulent psychedelic jam oozing from every part of this multi-layered
soundwich, and virtually each "title" (ranging in length from 19 seconds to
almost 13 minutes) bringing its own unexpected twists in texture and tempo, a
short track-by-track review would be futile (the detail on the awesome
"Drowning In Light" warrants an album-length discourse on its own). And
anyway, I've spun the thing regularly for months and still can't actually
tell where "Altairan Excavation Site" segues into "Motorcycle Boots", or
where "Electric Reynolds" ends and "Overscan" begins.

   'Round-Wound' comes delightfully wrapped in a sleeve resembling a
guitar-string pack (designed by our old pal Timothy Renner of Stone Breath
etc. from an original drawing by Dan) and includes a guest appearance (on
second guitar) on the final seven-and-a-half-minute "Buzz Bombb" by Bobb
Trimble (on whose fantastic and highly-sought-after 'Harvest Of Dreams' LP a
youthful Kris Thompson made his vinyl debut). Bobb also turns up on one of
three pieces on Abunai!'s limited edition (100 copies) 10" lathe cut on
Camera Lucida (Obscura's obscuro imprint). Cut onto clear vinyl with no label
or etching, "Deep Mu Flux +2" is something of a contrast with an altogether
deeper, darker and more ominous feel, but is just as compelling as
'Round-Wound' if you can track down a copy.  If you haven't done so already,
open your mind to Abunai!  Get on down to the galactic supermarket, and
hi-jack the space marmalade!  (Colin Hill)