THE SOUNDS OF SILENT

PGR: The Chemical Bride Wanna take a trip to "the other side?" OK, first you consecrate your magickal tools while fasting for a week, then, following the instructions in your grimoire, you cast a magick circle and .... wait! This is the '90s. Forget all that ancient mumbo jumbo. Get thee to a kick ass stereo system with a pair of good headphones (mind alteration beforehand is optional), jack in, and get ready for "The Chemical Bride," the latest phantasm conjured up by PGR.

The flyer for the new CD sets the stage: "On the other side there are, shall we say, spirit stations...they guide the spirits to the bridge so they may travel to the material world...what you hear is the sound of the stations humming and whirring before they begin to transmit." Let this statement frame your experience and you're off on one hell of a trip through a wispy world of electronic spiritism and flickering mirages that beckon suggestively, but never coalesce into anything real. The Chemical Bride lives in a land of in-betweens.

Listening, I picture these huge, ancient transmission towers glowing, sparking, humming like bug zappers as they capture the spirits in one dimension and beam them into another. Putting on headphones, you feel as though you've stuck your head directly into the path of this supernatural traffic. A stellar piece of musical "visionware."

Silent Records. 540 Alabama St, Suite 315, San Francisco, CA 94110.