When you start listening to Texas’ duo Cortege new EP Chasing Delight at first you may have a feeling that a post-western drone label may actually not be true. Starting the car in somewhere Nowhere, TX, and leaving for the open horizons, the first track originally engages in quite forceful march-like drumming and quite stirring funeral melody for almost 2 minutes. You don’t have the anticipation of brood and meandering gloom coming to pass, until it hits you head on and stops everything in its tracks. From there the EP is what it told you it is going to be – a slow molasses of towering mood with little otherwise movement, crystal clean sounds, bass levels through the floor and percussion resembling rattlesnake tail shake. After about 5.5 minutes there is another magical movement moment, and the last 20 sec offer a totally unexpected explosion of harmony and instruments, but otherwise this stays within the realm of instrumental drone for the fans of Om or Sleep, only with distinct western flavor.

The second track offers even less in the form of distinct musical shapes. Everything is ephemeral with a touch of psychedelia and cosmic synth. The spaced out chords and percussion become even more distant than on the first track and leave you totally adrift. The sounds, if it is possible, grow further and further apart, leaving your mind to fill in the blanks, pure frequencies take over and you don’t notice this is over until xylophone close.

Chasing Delight was good for my Friday morning commute when I just needed to let my mind feel unencumbered. Spending 15 min on the road like that was good, but I hit the strong coffee cup the moment I stepped into my workplace in search for more energy and work needing to be done.