California Gothic set to the tidal rhythms of the Pacific and tuned into the metabolic pathways of the northwest coast. Porras (Barn Owl) has scripted a love poem to the mist, a prayer cast in ghostly reflected guitar and deep pools of distortion. The ominous opening of 'Gray Dunes' is a dense and impenetrable murk, a fear that eventually succumbs to distortion but then gives way to a endless open space of delay in its second half. Its trajectory is symbolic of the record as a whole, with many of the darker paths on 'Undercurrent' leading to lush other worlds of delicate beauty, fragile guitar notes that emerge from the sea for a moment or two then fade back into the whole. 'Calm' and 'Lands End' are lovely spots of respite, clear beams of moonlight breaking through the clouds, a shot of light that ushers in the lone funerary come down of closer 'Gaze'. (Root Strata)