“Home” is a “living room romance in eight parts,”
and there’s certainly nothing if not a romance to Ross’s work. Spread across
eight tracks, “Home” basks in its own warmth and power, a roaring fireplace of
expressive guitar tectonics and explosive narrative arcs. All this while doing
an instrumental thingee! Fans of Already Dead friends like Michael Potter and
Carey and even Fuck Lungs will be totally on board here.
Storm Ross’s guitar explodes like Tyondai Braxton’s
Battles work, and the term “prog” should be embraced with 100% sincerity. And
even though “Home” purports to be a domestic chronicle – and it certainly
doesn’t disappoint as its imagination stretches beyond the chaise lounge and
out the window, down the sidewalk, and into the world – it blasts off into the
atmosphere like it can’t wait to break the “surly bonds of gravity and punch
the face of God”! (You can find that quote on your own.) It’s definitely
breaking something – maybe the sound barrier, especially with something like
the careening “Turning Point.”
Even on quieter and more subdued passages, Ross
can’t help but fully invest himself in exploring the deepest reaches of each
track. “An Understanding” melds a reverberating acoustic guitar with stardusted
feedback. “Sam Ascends the Invisible Path” drips with psychedelic effects,
swirling together colorful points of light into perpetual sound. “Half Our
Lives” smears itself over half its ten minutes before bursting into a majestic
riffbomb. It’s all over at that point.
It’s hard for me to be anything other than wildly
enthusiastic about this one. It’s right in my wheelhouse, and hopefully it’s
right in yours too.
--Ryan
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