It's hard not to be jealous of Steven R. Smith. He's played such a variety of styles-- woodsy atmospheres with Thuja, psych-rock with Mirza, folk experiments as Hala Strana-- that his consistency seems unfair. He's the kind of guy who might wake up one day, thumb drowsily through his record collection and think, "I'm in the mood for Neil Young, Fushitsusha, and Popol Vuh... maybe I'll start a project that sounds like the way I hear all of them together in my head." In fact, it sounds like he did-- Ulaan Khol, his latest solo venture, makes lonely, feedback-smeared instrumentals, with a classic aura that feels like an archeological discovery. Now I'm even more jealous.

III follows 2008's I and II, concluding a "maximalist three-part suite" that Smith calls "Ceremony". This may not be the best installment, but it's the most diverse and engaging. That's due to Smith's adding more bass and drums to his guitar journeys, as well as injecting more melody into his noisy haze. There are still lots of plaintive guitar-only pieces, rightly compared in press materials to the desolate reverb of Neil Young's soundtrack. But the cuts that hit hardest have a rock thrust, like elongated psych breaks liberated from the shackles of verse-chorus-verse.