Aural Fixations

ST37
The Insect Hospital
(Black Widow)
Destiny
(Blue Circle)
As any freak knows, Texas has a proud tradition of psychedelic rock that stretches to the mid-60s and the 13th Floor Elevators, who are often credited as the first band to employ the term "psychedelic." Austin's ST37 isn't that old, but the quintet has been melting minds and shifting perspectives since 1987, which is pretty impressive by any band's standards. The group's latest projects revolve around its ongoing affiliation with classic silent films, especially the work of German master Fritz Lang. Half of The Insect Hospital is taken up by the band's score for Metropolis, Lang's best-known film. It's far more propulsive that one might expect for movie music; while the tracks are appropriately atmospheric and textural, they're also riding a groove, powered by Scott Telles' aggressive basslines. Put Joel Cruchter and Mark Stone's distorted guitar peels and Carlton Cruchter's synth bleeps over the rhythm and you have a movie score that draws attention even without the visuals. Hell, "The Workers Revolt" is a flat-out rock song. The other half of The Insect Hospital is a bit of a hodgepodge. The album kicks off with "Solaris," a long piece inspired by Stanislaw Lem's cerebral science fiction novel. After that, covers (Brian Eno's "Seven Deadly Finns," Crash/Pat's punk rock "Land of Treason" and Roky Erickson's "Cold Night For Alligators," which manages to pay tribute to Erickson and space rock weirdo Helios Creed at the same time) join "Model Had," a terrific psych rocking original. The Insect Hospital doesn't have the unity most ST37 disks enjoy, but it's still a satisfying collection with some great stuff.

Destiny is the band's live-in-the-theater soundtrack for Lang's Der Mude Too. (Thank the gods for the [www.drafthouse.com] Alamo Drafthouse—non-Texans don't know what they're missing.) It's not the band's most driving work, obviously, as it's more traditional film music, meant to accompany visuals without distracting from them. Though this was created for a silent film, as with the band's score for Metropolis, there's enough going on here to make it more than merely ambient background noise. Telles and drummer Dave Cameron keep a steady pulse going, changing the rhythm as required without making a fuss about it, while Stone, Joel Crutchter and synthesist Brian Wotring layer on the atmospheres. Especially impressive are "The Culmination," a spectacular space rock mantra, and "The First Light," a "guitar quartet" with four plinking, strumming, delayed and feeding back six-strings ebbing and flowing around each other, like lovers in the afterglow. Casual fans may not feel the need to add this to the collection, but diehards need to get in gear: the two-disk set is a limited edition of only a hundred copies. Check the band's website for availability. Michael Toland