Posted at Foxy Digitalis on September 19, 2007:

Oklahoman celestial navigators Anvil Salute deliver three stunning, lengthy tracks on this sleek little cassette. Recorded live in an art gallery in Norman, OK – the group’s hometown – the music feels unconstrained and relaxed. This is most apparent on “Ghosts of Forgotten Winters,” which encompasses the whole of side one. Amorphous drone, bells and percussion unite and become a transfixing aura overtop of which K. Ahmadi’s saxophone drifts insouciantly. The energy picks up slightly near the middle of the song with some aggressive stabs from the drum kit and forceful bleats from the sax, but the meditative quality of the music remains undisturbed. Anvil Salute’s rapturous, folksy qualities have receded slightly on this release, allowing a graceful subtlety to be brought to the foreground.

On the second side, “Pattern Recognition” and “Body Becomes its Own Horizon” seem to be melted together into one long, luscious, dreamtime symphony. An easygoing rhythm slowly gathers momentum, serving as a backdrop overtop of which the saxophone groans, wails and shrieks. This cassette stands alongside the rest of the Anvil Salute catalogue, revealing these self-effacing minstrels as masters of atmosphere and purveyors of genre-defying hypnogogic hymns.