Satori Ray – Sow

April 8, 2013 • self-released

I'll be honest, I was a bit surprised to see that Satori Ray did pull it off and didn't disappear into the ether after their excellent first EP Выдох... (I missed a second one in 2011, somehow). Then again, with how Sow turned out, it's a case of one slight disappointment over another.

The band still seems very unsure of themselves style-wise; just like Выдох... was a trip through several styles of indie and post-rock, Sow treads the slow, droning ambient path on two of its tracks and leaves the third for a more traditional Godspeed-style post-rock jam. And there isn't really much else to say about it. I'm definitely not as thrilled with this release as I was with their first. Where Выдох... showed a lot of originality and promise, it feels like they've taken a step backward to something a bit safer and more generic. They don't do a bad job at it, to be sure, but I can't help but feel jaded with Sow.

5