Sativa Flats – Sativa Flats
New age music has a bad rep. There’s no way around it. So when St. Paul, MN four-piece Sativa Flats (a band comprised of members from many local bands including The Chambermaids, Daughters Of The Sun and Vampire Hands) start coalescing into flute-driven mysticism on their five-track debut’s title track an eyebrow or two may legitimately be raised. The creaking keys of their melodica however are here set to high-and-lonesome and the whole thing is undercut with a dub-funk meander that encourages you to simply shut your eyes, sit back and soak the spiritual massage in.
If this is your entrance to stoned and spacy world of Sativa Flats though – be warned – don’t follow their worm hole too deep or you’ll struggle to find you way back for the ever-present bubble of somnolent bass and spectral percussion is laidback to the point of dream-pop hypnosis. Chris Rose’s hazy high-register too is pure opium, an ideal bedfellow for the band’s sedative tones that belie their background in semi-improv jamming.
There’s a saying about it all being a little too quiet though. Cue the Sirens. “10cc” may at first seem like a blissful heavy-lidded afternoon at the beach – its ponderous notes and lyrics barely have the energy to hang themselves in the air long enough to be perceptible – yet as it washes over you so does it tug you down into the soporific surf. “Internet” is inevitably darker still. Heavily-reverbed spoken-word and slow-chiming arpeggio work add solemn mystery, striking the candy cotton dreamscapes of earlier from the memory, turning you out into the cold light of morning wondering if the whole Sativa Flats episode even happened at all. You may never be certain but you’ll cherish all you can remember.
~Sativa Flats is out now on cassette via Moon Glyph.~