Jon Porras - Black Mesa (CD, Vinyl LP)

So this is the feller from Barn Owl doing his solo thang and its gentle, drifting, atmospheres soothed my frazzled soul yesterday after a day spent wading through a mountain of reviews,both my ears tired and jaded (its a hard life you know).  What we have are beautifully evocative guitar figures both acoustic and electric. Sometimes there are full on melodies and sometimes it drifts off into full on ambience but in a really natural and organic way.  I'm reminded mostly of Earth in that the guitars churn almost in slow mo and are heavily effected with reverb. This is mostly drum less though, and so Porras keeps the guitar as the main focus, yet there never seems to be  a lack of variation. Fellow travellers that spring to mind would be Tarentel, the recent A- Sun-Amissa album and the quieter end of the Constellation catalogue. Occasionally when the guitars are distorted it slips a little too far into 'Telegraph Road' territory but these moments are few and far between and Porras playing mostly recalls the gentle atmospheres of a Loren Connors. Really great stuff, Phil reckons this is better than the Barn Owl stuff and who am I to disagree?