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It's taken three long years for American wall-of-drone sweethearts
Windy & Carl, once a coupling that produced records prolifically, to
follow up Depths with their sixth longplayer, fourth proper
album, and second effort for the Kranky imprint. While Webber &
Hultgren have remained involved in various musical communings (the
most notable being Five Way Mirror, their collaboration with Greg
Gasiorowski of Violet Glass Oracle), Consciousness comes
across as a welcome return for the Terrastock favorites after a long
time in the musical wilderness. Despite the lengthy interim,
Consciousness is an obvious step in a development of sound
that first came to the fore on their majestic Antarctica
Darla-bliss-out set, then moved along into Depths. Wrapped in
glorious psychedelic artwork, the set finds Windy & Carl again
charting their grand-sized, melodic, almost-folkie drones, with
massive, billowing guitar lines draped in ghostly reverb arcing
fluttery, wavering walls of sound into a sonorous sky. The guitar
melodies shoot so "high" in the sound, with a trail of delay drifting
down them like fine rain, that they leave a moist, hollowed-out space
"underneath" the guitar and bass. There's a tactual silence amongst
the sound, allaying that washing-over-the-listener feeling that's
synonymous with Windy & Carl's music. Thankfully, the duo haven't bid
adieu to vocals, either, even if they don't arrive till the album's
second side. Webber's soft cooing and "singing" bass on the album's
shimmering title track is one of the set's highest highlights.
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