Psalters – Sya a Ku (cries from the cave)

Description

Sya a Ku (cries from the cave) is a 6-track CD-EP by the American alternative folk-rock combo Psalters, released on Burnt Toast Vinyl in 2000. The January 2001 Phantom Tollbooth Pick of the Month.

psalters could be described in many ways: an attitude, an artistic expression, a refining movement, a community, a style of worship, a social consciousness, or even a social conscience… Some might go so far as to label it a brave, new musical experiment. All these descriptions, while tinged with accuracy, still fail. That’s what makes me somewhat nervous in reviewing their latest offering, Sya A Ku (cries from the cave). Somehow I suspect that if I approach anything by these “followers of El Elyon, the Suffering Servant,” on a strictly musical level alone, I am missing the essence of psalters.

psalters’ music is something of a chimera in itself – with a head from the ancient past, a body from the East, and a tail from the modern plugged-in West. They find their roots in the Hebrew tradition of the psalters–the temple musicians consecrated to make prayers to the God of the Exodus. This Middle Eastern tradition is clearly the dominant influence on psalters musically, whirling you off (if you allow yourself) into the arid landscape of spiral-topped mosques and Bedouin-herdsmen sheltering in desert caves. Over a dozen musicians combine on this effort, playing an assortment of instruments from the far reaches of the ethnic globe. Among them: the djembe (african drum), the bouzouki (greek mandolin?), the darbuka (turkish/tunisian goblet drum), the shofar, the tumbadora (caribbean conga), the cello, and the violin. The uniqueness of this musical mishmash branches out even further by the grafting in of electronic guitar distortion – just a dash of the modern western experimental spice to round out the strange hybrid sound which is psalters.

Although their first CD, the now out of print ‘Prayers to Be‘, had as many players, it didn’t always feature them all at once. Several tracks on that album featured only a few musicians or vocalists, giving them a more minimalist beauty. Just about every track of Sya a Ku, in contrast, sounds like the whole village has come out to jam and wail. psalters are more consistent and community-oriented now, but also less accessible for those who need at least a few moments of quiet among the chaos.

The overall tone is that of a haunting, disturbing lament. One re-occurring picture brought to mind is that of a whirling dervish who throws himself, soul and body, into his spiritual offering. Starting out with slow meditative steps, he loses himself in a spiraling frenzy of emotional and physical abandon. He lunges, leaps, and whirls, oblivious to onlookers, seemingly drunken in the throes of expressing the vision in his mind’s eye, the burden of the world he carries within his soul. Finally, in orgasmic spasms, he staggers and falls to rest in a spent exhausted heap, his prayer done. Most of the songs follow the pattern of this spectrum to some degree: from halting discordancy, slowly gathering rhythmic momentum and cresting to wave after repeated wave of throbbing melodic urgency, and then, the cathartic crescendo collapsing back upon itself as it recedes into the background.

There are few “pretty” moments. That’s ok though, because the intent is clearly not to dazzle, but to stir and hopefully prick a numb place back into a state of feeling. Take, for instance, the vocals of front-man Scott Krueger, which range from faltering whispers to wailing falsetto chants in the Aramaic/Hebrew?. They are too rough to impress any talent scouts, but it is that sheer unadornment which elicits an answering note in your soul. Much of the time the lyrics are impossible to decipher through the vocal slurring, which is unfortunate, because you cannot cry out along with him if you are moved to do so.

Recorded on an 8-track in various houses and even on the street, the roughness of the production quality accentuates the overrall raw-nerve feeling of the album. Harsh images of the street run through lyrics which speak of the marginalized and outcast, such as the abused girl in «Walk with Me»:

grew up on fists and penetrations
your father and brother tore you within
but you’re still alive now here on the sidewalk
six tricks for twelve hits to silence that day

A wide array of atrocities are referenced, from commercial greed to drug abuse, but overall the message is to understand that there is no difference between the sanitized existence of the comfortable and affluent and the unsanitary existence of the homeless drug addict – the heart condition is exactly the same. If anything, the disenfranchised are better off, because, without all the “fat” to insulate them from the world’s pain, they can at least still feel. In light of that universal desperation, the focus keeps shifting heavenward in heart-rending intercession, as in «We Are All Lepers Here»:

Flood us with Fire
Consume with your raging Waters
to keep us bleeding,
to keep us feeling

psalters may capture a fair amount of attention as a musical novelty, but they will remain an enigma for most listeners. I think there is a certain amount of personal comfort at stake for anyone who would try to truly “get” psalters. They don’t make music for entertainment, pleasure, or education; to them it is a vertical vocation. While they invite people to join them as they give voice to the silent masses of downtrodden humanity, they would continue to do so whether anyone joined them or not. They would encourage people to recognize that while outwardly they may have health and comfort, inwardly they are diseased and needy as the leper. The only time I come close to “getting it” is when I have seen them live – to understand psalters you have to be willing to participate in the experience of becoming a psalter yourself, perhaps a bit too uncomfortable a proposition for most of us. [Brian Heflin and Josh Spencer (of Stranger Things Magazine), The Phantom Tollbooth, 12/5/2000]

CD-EP tracklist:

01. Unsanitaries
02. We Are All Lepers Here
03. El Elyon
04. Immanuel, Why Are You Still Here
05. Walk With Me
06. Ruachabba

Note: Special hand-made deluxe packaging featuring a parchment lyric scroll, a hand-printed pouch, and a tuned chime to play along to the recording.