Blue Cloud, the third proper album from Davis Redford Triad (not including the live collection Code Orange), is not all that different from the previous two — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Once again, guitarist Steven Wray Lobdell (Sufi Mind Game, latter-day Faust, etc.) and friends make a bid for transcendence through mind-melting feedback, thudding rhythms, and searing, compressed squeals and squalls. And in the right frame of mind, it works very well. Save for a relatively brief political spoken-word piece from the Baseball Astrologer (with a miasma of sound surging underneath), Blue Cloud is all instrumental. Think Hendrix, Leigh Stevens, and Mokoto Kawabata and you’re on the right astral plane. – Jason Nickey
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