Night Raider in Bloomington, MN

Starting with a three-part, 18-minute instrumental,
"Time of Ye Life/Born for Nothing/Paranoid Arm of Narcoleptic Empire,"
it's clear that
Justin Greaves
and his
Crippled Black Phoenix
ensemble were aiming for an emotional experience with
Night Raider
. The album plays like a sepia-toned soundtrack for a futuristic spaghetti Western, borrowing from
Ennio Morricone
's scores,
Pink Floyd
's synthesized movements,
Explosions in the Sky
's dynamic builds, and
Muse
's post-pop/rock awareness. In fact,
's
"Knights of Cydonia"
video from the same year, which featured cowboys and laser beams, seems like a perfect setting for this sort of music.
"Along Where the Wind Blows"
breaks up the long-winding desert storm dream sequence, as a dead ringer for a
Tom Waits
song, complete with a gruff vocal part by
Matt Williams
and some convincing
Rain Dogs
sideshow instrumentation. Elsewhere, there's a grandness to everything, representative of a storm building on the big open horizon, with sound swells, classical woodwinds, tremolo guitars, and complex horn arrangements. It isn't until the second half of
that it shifts into Brit-pop for two songs before rolling back into a tumbleweed lull for the remainder. Like
Tomahawk
Anonymous
, it's the type of conceptual album that appeals to a select audience, designed as a straight listen, but for those looking for monumental background music, it's as hefty as the 16-person cast would suggest. ~ Jason Lymangrover