Don't let the album title and song titles ("Ramblin' in the Shadows," "Western Wind," etc...) fool you, ACROSS TUNDRAS is not any type of blues or country based rock outfit. "Dark Songs of the Prairie" is hipster-friendly, post-rock drone fest. Not that this music is bad, far from it, it's just the presentation seems to be misleading.

The vibe on here is one of spacey ambience, with a fresh, airy sound and production quality that really suits the music. The voices on the album seem to be well performed, but any lyrics that might be on here are totally obscured by a wash of studio effects. The result is a ghostly presence hovering just above the music, adding a new layer of atmosphere to the tracks. Some of the songs come really close to wearing out their welcome, but the 8 + minute epic album opener "Ramblin' in the Shadows" seems to fade out too soon and somewhat awkwardly. Many nice musical touches can be found on here, like the natural sounding tempo shifts in "Ode to George Parts 1 & 2," as well as the slide guitar flourishes over the acoustic lurch that is "The Old Sexton."

As mentioned before, the tracks drone on for a bit, but if experienced in the right frame of mind, the music of this Denver, CO. could really take flight. This is the perfect music to zone out to on a hungover Sunday morning/afternoon. Fans of ISIS and NEUROSIS could do a lot worse than checking out ACROSS TUNDRAS.

- Broadbent

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/acrosstundras

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