Yume Bitsu - The Frigid, Frigid, Frigid Body of Dr. T. J. Eckleberg

Yume Bitsu is not a band known for their short, concise pop songs.  No, their songs, with names like "Where Fog Blurs and Covers, Emptiness Prevails" and "Untitled," occupy a vast amount of seconds, happy to float and echo and hum as well as crash and thunder.  This track, the final song on Yume Bitsu's self-titled 1999 release, clocks in at 18 minutes and 29 seconds by my count, making it the longest one I have by them by a hair (Track 6 on The Golden Vessyl of Sound is 16 seconds shorter).

If you're familiar with space rock, nothing on this track will come as a surprise, really, except that it is really good for the entire 18 minutes and change.  The vocals are right on, the melodies are great, the guitars are big and thick and occasionally soar... it's basically the ultimate space rock track, in my humble opinion.  After a few minutes of normal-sounding song (Not Gatsby-themed as far as I can tell, but I haven't read the book in years - Eckleberg was on the billboard, right?), Yume Bitsu break into an incredibly long instrumental passage that grows for about 8 minutes, then coasts and finds a sort of stride for another 6, fading out slowly.  I don't mean to make it sound as if nothing happens that whole time - it goes all over the place and generally sounds awesome, but what am I going to say?  "There's this one part where the delay is so long and there's sooo much reverb!  And then they totally change the key!"  No.

So if you're familiar with Windy & Carl (on the ambient side of things) or Spiritualized (on the space side of things) or even Yume Bitsu themselves, do yourselves a favor and nab this song.  It's definitely one of their best, and despite being quite long, it sure as hell ain't boring.

Here's "The Frigid, Frigid, Frigid Body of Dr. T.J. Eckleberg," by Yume Bitsu.

Comments

[Zencow]

A year ago, I was talking to someone on IRC about Godspeed You Black Emperor, and someone dcced this MP3 to me. Since then, I has become one of my favorites. Too bad I can't seem to find any other Yume Bitsu downloads on the internet.

[robosexual sez: That's cool, I never thought of IRC as a hotbed of post- and space-rock activity. IF you're looking for more Yume Bitsu, try the hype machine here:
http://hypem.com/search/yume%20bitsu/1/
or if you're looking for more stuff like it, try Landing.]