Both words in Eternal Tapestry's name say something about their music, but it's the first that's key. This Portland band's expansive psych rock sounds like it could go on forever, and most of their releases have in fact been culled from longer, open-ended improvisations. The way they slowly build these jams-- adding parts, increasing volume, and cresting in unison-- you get the feeling they're always playing, and their records are just glimpses of an endless stream.
For A World Out of Time, Eternal Tapestry's second full-length of 2012, the band took a less long-form approach. Instead of jamming endlessly and picking sections from the results, they recorded the album, according to press materials, "as a whole." This presumably means they performed one set of focused, purposeful sessions, but it doesn't mean there's a one-to-one ratio between what was laid to tape and what's included. In fact, this is the band's most collage-oriented release, offering varied sounds fused with hard cuts, cross-fades, and even outdoorsy ambience.
Still, there's more efficiency and clarity on A World Out of Time than any previous Eternal Tapestry album. While each song could pass for a portion of a larger jam, they all get to the point rapidly. Well, almost all of them-- opener "When I Was in Your Mind" is 12-plus minutes of wandering guitar jangle. But after that, every track is pretty concise-- most last less than five minutes and none go over seven. Remarkably, this brevity comes with little loss of space or freedom. That's probably because the group has so much experience at playing for longer. The chemistry they've built over all those sessions makes them able to step on the gas quickly and naturally, which is why they can make a four-minute song sound as wide-open as a half-hour excursion.
My favorite example is "The Weird Stone", a masterpiece of slow-burning, perfectly-overlapping guitars, all driven by Jed Bindeman's limber drumming, which combines garage primacy with jazz-like flexibility. In a flash, the band evokes numerous psych-jam forefathers-- I hear the Grateful Dead, Hawkwind, and the under-sung Japanese band Marble Sheep and the Run Down Sun's Children-- while adding accents and textures that avoid outright mimicry.
Some might find that last claim debatable. Admittedly, Eternal Tapestry rely on well-worn psych moves, some of which verge on cliché. One song, "Apocalypse Troll", cops a riff so familiar it must have inhabited multiple classic rock songs before. Another, closer "Sand Into Rain", sounds like a slowed-down tribute to Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man". Eternal Tapestry embraces other tropes common to this kind of music as well-- at least four songs share titles with sci-fi and fantasy tomes by the likes of Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison.
But to me the band's commitment to diving deep into psych-rock tradition actually helps them stand out. Their unapologetic sound isn't an opportunistic gloss on the past, but rather a full-on exploration that enhances and moves history forward. Sometimes a group this versed in a genre, this able to tap its depths, is best equipped to further it. Judging by A World Out of Time, Eternal Tapestry's well won't run dry anytime soon.
