Nature's Clumsy Hand

Recorded
Released

Asha Vida’s second and final full-length album, 1998’s Nature’s Clumsy Hand, was a lovely, murky way to bow out, perhaps as emblematic a release from Michigan’s ‘space rock’ scene as any in terms of both its clear inspiration in the past and its transformative process in its present. Beginning with the flowing, understated “Il Buon Tempo Verra!,” its title like the rest of the songs a Latin literary or philosophical reference, the trio of C. Benedict Badynee, Eric N. Pieti and Jesse Rafferty play a variety of instruments besides a basic guitar/bass/drums setup across the album’s six tracks. Nods to all kinds of earlier travellers like Meddle-era Pink Floyd can be heard but they’re just as audibly nearer-contemporaries of acts like Bardo Pond and Dadamah in terms of general atmosphere. That said, the general sonic focus is on the quieter and moody throughout, a careful interplay where the spare vocals when present, as on “Poena Sensus,” are delivered with a distanced, slightly eerie air. Similarly, moments where shards of feedback and more comparatively raucous jams emerge aim for shading instead of skullcrushing impact.

Ned Raggett