**Gorgeous drone and layered shoegaze somewhere between Cocteau Twins and Tim Hecker. Includes MP3 download voucher redeemable from the label and pressed on virgin vinyl at RTI and housed in heavy-duty old-style tip-on gatefold jacket printed on uncoated stock by Stoughton** One of our favourite contemporary guitar-scapers presents his fourth solo album outside of duties in the Barn Owl and Higuma ensembles. Steeped in blues and drone traditions but not beholden to them, Caminiti detaches himself further from tangible guitar tones and amp worship to look further into a nocturnal scene awash with expansive analogue synths and foggy vocal chorales which drift past like tankers following narrow, forested valley channels through inky blackness. It's a sincerely majestic, rarified sound, richly inspired by both '80s vampire movies and his San Fran locale while evoking the most private, misty-eyed emotion. Playing through as eleven tracks, concision is key to the narrative ebb and flow. Rather than spilling out into overblown, lip-biting cheese as many tend to do within this scene, Evan pares back each piece to sometimes only a minute or two of eerily poignant tactility, shaping and colouring his space with chiaroscuro streaks of feedback dissolved into the harsh but beautiful landscape. It's an achingly evocative sound, and no doubt his 4-track recordings sound all the better for Lupo's master and vinyl cut at Berlin's D&M.
