Spiral Joy Band

*** This long running but until-now-undocumented Virginia group was founded in 2001 by Pelt members Mikel Dimmick and Mike Gangloff with Karl Precoda (Last Days of May, The Dream Syndicate). Their debut CD concentrates on live performances featuring marathon, unorthodox drone treatises for acoustic instruments, including Tibetan singing bowl, gong, sruti, and esraj. The bowed, rolled, and (usually) gently struck metal percussion anchors the sound with rich, resonating tones. The music is a cousin to Pelt’s explorations on (Untitled), and Keyhole and Keyhole II (Eclipse). “Lullaby 1” is built almost entirely on the gongs and bowls, a slowly building narcoleptic trip. The forty-one-minute epic “Lullaby 2” begins with Gangloff on esraj, building up a trance before the shenais and sharply struck gongs take over at the climax of the piece. “Lullaby 3” throws some surprisingly melodic and active piano into the mix, evoking a long-form version of Popol Vuh’s “Die Nacht Der Seele.”