Soaking in
Sumptuous Hamper's first composition, "Damp Patch Plaza," is
like floating slowly into the Sun. There's the thick haze of
feedback fuzz, the distant chime like a never-ceasing train horn, a
rattle somewhere far away. In the background you catch wind of a
vague, fiery guitar solo, or the hesitant tooting of woodwinds. I'm
reminded of that famous scene in The Wizard of Oz, when
Dorothy is being whisked, along with all means of cultural detritus,
through the nebulous vortex, en route to the yellow brick road. This
what you would expect to hear in that very situation, if it weren't
just a scene in a film from 1939, but instead real life, or at least
the interpretation of real life that exists within one's psyche.
Because the Golden Oaks Three Billion experience is a very
psychological one, one that evokes internal feelings and impressions
that are likely to differ from listener to listener. This is more
than just a drone release, or an even vaguer "psych drone" release.
It's a strange, idiosyncratic forty minutes that encapsulates the
joy of the experimental underground.
