Beyond the 4th Door
(Thrill Jockey)

The five spiritual bros in Portland’s Eternal Tapestry look like garden-variety Northwest indie rockers, but they thankfully harbor much higher ambitions than to eke out pallid emulations of the Beach Boys and Neutral Milk Hotel. Word has it that Eternal Tapestry began when founding members Nick Bindeman and Dewey Mahood bonded over their love of Sonny Sharrock and Neu! Now that’s a compelling origin story! Whatever the case, Eternal Tapestry prefer to go long and deep into the cosmic whirlwind with the solemn purposefulness of many hirsute hallucinogentlemen before them. Where previous ET releases like Palace of the Night Skies and The Invisible Landscape brandished more thrusting dynamics and mantric repetition, Beyond the 4th Door leans toward a more placid, liquid approach to transcendence, with massive plumes of guitar/bass incense spiraling upward… and then upward some more. Think Pink Floyd’s mellower meditations, Bo Hansson’s stately sonic tributes to J. R. R. Tolkien, and some of Bardo Pond’s gentler stellar journeys. With an average track time of over eight minutes, 4th Door requires patience and focus to navigate its timeless hovercraft anthems. So this is as good a time as any to nip that ADHD in the bud.