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The Use of Ashes - Firetree

Artist:	The Use of Ashes
Title:	Firetree
Label:	Mellow Records MMP 292
Length(s):	60 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1996
Month of review:	01/1997

Line up

None available.

Tracks

1)	Sunshine Lay	2.51
2)	Prince Of Darkness	10.33
3)	Naari	1.08
4)	Castle In Grey Light	1.18
5)	Into The Radiant Blue	3.31
6)	The Light Rains	2.48
7)	The Celestial Hand	2.27
8)	Blood In August	2.25
9)	Last Tear Of The World	2.03
10)	Drowning	1.57
11)	Astray	2.46
12)	From The Lighttree	3.29
13)	Golden Gate	2.03
14)	Song From Under A Bridge	2.02
15)	1000 Suns	4.44
16)	The Tears Around The Moon	7.49
17)	White Garden	4.09
18)	Love Love (1000 Suns Reprise)	0.54
19)	Firetree	1.59

Summary

Having released an album on a Japanese label and now on an Italian one, this is not your average Dutch band. If I'm not mistaken they came forth from the new wave formation Mekanik Kommando. The Japanese album is supposed to be quite good. Let's hope that after so many years (it has been some time) this is still the case.

The music

The music of Usa of Ashes can be described as soft psychedelic, experimental music in the line of Neu and the ambient Eno. Usually very dreamy with an extensive instrumentation, they make their moody tracks, that are usually not songs in the strict sense, but just sounds and moods. Different from this are the tracks Prince of Darkness that has a beat and fuzz guitar and thus approaches ambient house or Hawkwind. The vocals are low and sound dreary, while most of the actual music is acoustic with electronic and pianic accompaniment (or the other way around)

Selecting a few tracks: The Light Rains can hardly be called light for it pours in this track, but the song has a nice Kitaro ring to it, while Blood in August is experimental percussion probably using tape loops.

Both Astray and Tears Around the Moon are almost songs, noisy ones, but songs. I find the latter of the two the best, as Astray irritates me a little with the way it is sung. The closing songs are again very dreamy and soft.

Conclusion

If you are familiar with their first album and liked it, you should have no problem with this one, but for me an album of this length is a little to free of form to really captivate, but it is nice to listen to in the later hours. There are some songs here that do really fit into the template, most notably the boring and long Prince of Darkness and the noisy Astray. \ For the rest its low tempo and relaxed psychedelic music and experimentation.