Causa Sui - Vibraciones Doradas (2017)

Causa Sui are back with a new mini-LP, the final chapter in a trilogy of sorts, beginning with Euporie Tide from 2013, through Return To Sky from 2016. Each of these four epic tracks is a testament to the fact that Causa Sui has carved out a singular niche for themselves, where vintage Sabbath-isms are filtered through a distinctively post-modern ethos. And that's what sets Causa Sui apart: the band's individual members has had their hands in a wide variety of music in the past 15 year ambient drone, impro sessions with krautrock legends, synthesizer music, and they've made records with guys from Tortoise and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Causa Sui's brand of rock conveys everything that's so great about fuzzed-out heaviness, yet there's something about it that makes the listening experience far from trivial. In stark contrast to the standards of the stoner/doom scenes Causa Sui manages to be weighty and peaceful at the same forceful, yet vulnerable, ecstatic yet thoughtful. On opener 'The Drop' the band drives a thick John Bonham groove into Can-esque freeform ecstasy before liquefying the groove into a warm ocean of shoegazy guitars and wistful synths. On 11-minute centerpiece, 'El Fuego', they create a sonic river that seems be channelling Popol Vuh as much as Palm Desert stoner rock. And the closing title track can best be described as sounding like that Sonic Youth sludge-metal record that never was. Ounce for ounce Vibraciones Doradas is arguably Causa Sui's finest effort.