Various Artists: Hungry Ghost

Various Artists
Hungry Ghost
Sound Merchant

Attention, fools for sustained tones and textures! This mostly local, two-CD compilation surveys an expansive patch of experimental sound turf. Breast-Fed Yak's zany cutup "The Joey Refection," the folky weirdness of "Whisper Whisper" by the pseudonymous Stone Breathe, and Jeph Jerman's softly rattling "Bones" all seem at home amidst Hungry Ghost's 21 selections. But drones--particularly Skye Klad's "Awake!"--dominate. That track, recorded more or less posthumously by the now-defunct Minneapolis quartet, finds its members tossing out their rock 'n' roll slippers for a prolonged exercise in guitar-based density that sounds like it could be roiling up from the depths of the Marijuana, er, Marianas Trench.