Hexadic III
On the third installment of his Hexadic series, Six Organs of Admittance’s Ben Chasney challenged peers to employ his esoteric compositional system to see what strange new aural wormholes might be conjured. The Hexadic System is a musical composition method devised by Chasney using playing cards to create noninstinctive pieces of music, referencing philosophical precedents, hermeticism, even the occult. The first two Hexadic albums were released under Chasney’s Six Organs of Admittance moniker; Hexadic III brings artists as creatively diverse as Moon Duo, Tashi Dorji and Phil Legard to the table, utilizing the system to eerily cohesive effect. Whether through the warbling noise collage of Richard Young’s “Abandoned Problems,” or the creepily beautiful “Protection Hex” by Meg Baird (of Heron Oblivion) and Charlie Saufley (S.F.’s Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound), the project revels in heady, primitive psych fare. It may be more interesting to musical intellectuals, though there are still enough inherent grooves and ambient detours to make it appeal to those who listen even slightly outside the box.