Dark Experimental Folk

Hexadic II is the most recent studio album by Six Organs of Admittance, the primary musical project of guitarist Ben Chasny. The project’s music is rooted in the new folk movement, and the compositions on this record are centered around fingerpicking parts on acoustic guitar along with reverbated, shoegazy vocals, backed by various strings and winds that add murky drones to the background, thickening the texture. Also of interest is the album’s connection to esotericism, its title, Hexadic II, references the Hexadic system, an unorthodox method of musical composition that uses cards in order to dictate harmonic choices, with the supposed aim of countering what Chasney describes as the “authoritative/Platonic/Pythagorean worldview” on his website, a section of which is devoted to the topic. 

The album has a pleasantly dark, circular feeling, and its origins in mysticism make a good deal of sense given this quality. Perhaps also a result of this system is the heavy, creepy feeling of the harmony, which draws heavy influence from the chromaticism of bluegrass, but is far darker in its result, sounding almost akin to black metal artists such as Xasthur. But then simultaneously some of its influences pull it in the oppostite direction, toward the popular sphere: the usually double tracked guitars consist of a fingerpicking part that forms the center of the composition, and another that plays either melodic parts or plucky solos, the combination of which is somewhat reminiscent of acoustic Led Zeppelin. The songs themselves are mostly down-tempo, based around a slow acoustic guitar progression, but some have a bit more drive, namely “Exaltation Wave,” where the fingerpicking has a nice circular rhythm that propels the song forward. Generally these moments are the album’s strong points, while slower moments like “Burial Found Empty” can lose momentum.

Overall this lack of momentum is the main weakness on Hexadic II, but is largely countered by the strength of the feeling it produces. When listening to this album, one notices not so much the individual musical events as the thick, dusky ambience the overall work creates, which feels almost palpable in the air as it plays and makes it well worth the listen.