restocked, reduced price "Out-of-nowhere private press LP, released on Pat Murano aka Decimus’s own label, in an edition of only 300 copies with individually hand-painted (w/iodine) sleeves, every one unique. Safe to say that NNCK have been *the* central free music ensemble to come out of the US underground in the past few decades and their music has continued to evolve at such a staggering rate that every release seems simultaneously unique and a further expansion of their project to push improvised musical expression further into new vectors of alien tongue. Ytiu was recorded at Faust Studios and it is particularly spectacular. NNCK have always had a tangential relationship to American Primitive - it’s no coincidence that John Fahey’s post-Takoma imprint Revenant briefly became their home - and Ytiu feels particularly informed by American folk forms, albeit variously amplified and obscured. The same focus on odd expressive rhythm is here, with an oblique groove illuminated by droning/vaguely-gothic keyboard work that comes straight out of the devotional Krautrock songbook: think Siloah, Zweistein... the guitar work drops into a dosed country lollop, a singing string band lament with a woozy Venusian quality. NNCK have a way of playing around central themes, of orbiting them more than overtly stating them, so that their particular brand of minimalism often results in maximalist emotional/cerebral impact. And here the architecture is towering, as the music builds through subtle plateaus, accruing all sorts of odd sonic detail along the way, extrapolating west coast ballroom moves via Silence-ear jams to the point of instrumental redux across two beautifully sustained sides. The end result is particularly euphoric, as the jam explodes into nowhere and someone – Dave Nuss perhaps? – is left crashing two cymbals in a triumphal instrumental refrain. Can’t think of anyone who so perfectly marries the kind of higher-minded experiments in free music that took place at Slug’s Saloon in the mid-60s with mantric rock form and oblique avant/minimalist strategies and this has got to be one of their most elusively addictive long-form works to date. Magical, is the word. Highly recommended!" Volcanic Tongue