id you know that you can paint the insides of your nostrils with Wite-Outä, and that this will cause a brief period of hallucination before inducing unconsciousness? The guys in Vocokesh probably know this. They are also probably mature enough to know that engaging in such action can cause serious liver and/or brain damage. It’s always best to cultivate your own psychotropic agents. With The Tenth Corner, Vocokesh have honed some monstrously potent neurotransmitter fudge. A little too potent, in fact. How can you look at the face of God and still be concerned with the all too human constraints of ‘engaging music’ or ‘enjoyment’ of the listener? All fine and good for the players (the mystics who are searching for union with the divine), but us secular types with clouded third eyes are left with typically smeared, formless, ten tabs of acid rock that bores as much as it fascinates.

In the name of cosmic friendship I’ll start with the fascinating parts. Vocokesh are at their best when they leave the vestiges of rock far behind. Nowhere is this more apparent then atop the peak of “Holy Mountain”. We start our trek with some arrhythmic percussion. It’s metallic and booms at a plodding, echo-y pulse. Bang a gong in the fifth dimension and this is what we might hear in the old fashioned 3-D universe. The empty space starts to fill with cymbal shivers, and gradually all sorts of keyboards and droning guitars are piled on until we find ourselves three miles above the sea level of Mars. At times the cathedralesque organ and synthesized chanting ape the ghost of Popul Vuh. An atonal, throbbing cacophony notes our final scaling of the logically impassible, convention killing west face. Other bright spots occur when guitarists Richard Franecki and John Helwig go headstrong into the 21st century, soaking their signals in deep digital processing. “Love Theme from El Topo” possesses the most utterly searing laser fractal guitar ‘line’ I’ve heard in years. Jimi Hendrix where are you? It makes me feel the way St. Teresa of Avila must of felt when the Lord’s divine spear repeatedly pierced her entrails.

Now for the boredom. The points mentioned above are the highlights within a miasma of guitar fuzz and acid jam clichés. Far too often the rhythm section is merely passable, thumping out a back beat suitable for a bar band. These conventional rhythms weigh down the soaring, planar interweaving of the guitars and synthesizers. Because of this, a song like “Eddie’s Hallucination” is reduced to nothing more than a bunch of heads kicking it in a garage. Appropriately the drums on this track are credited to ‘Rusty’. Even during the seizure that is “Love Theme from El Topo”, traditional rock and blues phrases make frequent appearances that, frankly, bring me down. It seems to me that Strange Attractors is trying really hard to push the band’s experimental/krautrock aspect. I’m not sure if they are trying to convince listeners or themselves that the majority of this album is something other than a drug induced indulgence.

At their best, Vocokesh can’t transcend their influences. Perhaps with a more accomplished/adventurous rhythm section the band could become a monumental psychedelic tornado for the i-pod era. And if the tacky drug metaphors sprinkled throughout this review annoyed you, avoid this record. I was just following the example set by the The Tenth Corner’s music, song titles and graphic design. My final verdict is slimly positive due to my own penchant for krautrock and intergalactic inner journeys. So much music exists that is superb whether you’re tripping or not. I was not tripping when I wrote this. Get me.