Review from Volcanic Tongue

Fantastic new CD on the great Singing Knives label, rapidly becoming one of the UK’s most consistently impressive labels. Shiggajon are a collective based in Denmark that combine lucid string drones with ritualistic atmospheres and a wild free jazz stance. It makes sense that Singing Knives are behind this as there are definite parallels between Shiggajon and the Harappian Night Recordings album, with a lunar field recording quality that would combine Asian-tinged modal run-downs with buzzing Tony Conrad/Bill Breeze-styled vortices of tone. Some tracks orbit the same Cherry/Blackwell fourth world flute/drum exchanges previously explored by Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides and if this was British I’d be listing it alongside those guys and John Clyde-Evans’ Fisheye LP as a landmark UK drone side. Still, the European roots make sense, joining the dots between the kinda fluxing folk/psych moves documented by the Ohr label and the contemporary freak scene. Excellent.

David Keenan 2009