Black Tar Prophecies 1 2 & 3
"Words like breathtaking, introspective, graceful, and  powerful all describe their music aptly. It's for people who like their  music to take them places, even within themselves, that they hadn't dared  before. It's music to help you realize the beauty of a broken world around  you." - INDIEWORKSHOP"I still hear a band of ragtag improvisers, engaged in a heavy channeling  of Americana that fuses Henry Flynt or Tony Conrad with the smoldering  remains of Black Sabbath. Who can't dig that?" - DUSTEDAt the start of 2005, Grails returned to the U.S. from a month-long  European tour. Stepping off the plane, most of the band walked in one  direction and the violinist strayed off in another. It ended up being the  last time most anyone would see or talk to him again. A bandmate of five  years had vanished, existing thereafter only in the form of vague rumors.  As the varied reports of brief encounters and sightings grew stranger and  darker, the band started a series of recordings called Black Tar  Prophecies. The remaining members had particular dissatisfactions with how  the band had been grouped into the innocuous, contemporary post-rock  movement. This frustration, combined with newly liberated instrumental  roles, introduced new possibilities for their sound.In this way, the collected Black Tar Prophecies ends up being a more  idiosyncratic mission statement for future Grails recordings, revealing  their fondness for the groundfloor sixties and seventies experimental  artists who saw music as a process of discovery as opposed to the  pre-conceived, pre-parametered, commodified sport that underground music  has become. A parallel is now forming between Grails and old-school  experimental bands like Faust who, rejecting their past, started over from  the beginning to build new languages in music.Black Tar Prophecies is Grails' third full-length recording (and their  first since leaving Neurosis label Neurot). Seven of the nine tracks were  released in small, highly sought-after pressings of 12" vinyl on two  European labels. Important is now proud to release Black Tar Prophecies in  its complete form, including two tracks not available on the vinyl  releases.