Mako Sica
Dual Horizon
LSE 016 LP


"Mako Sica" is a translation of what many Native American tribes called "land bad"; hence the moniker of dusty mazes, buttes and spires created by millions of years of erosion in poisoned deserts. Taking on a phrase from an extinct language for a band name certainly carries a fair share of social metaphor, political baggage and spiritual darkness. The band lives and works in Chicago (also a Native American term meaning "wild onion"), where the city's rich jazz history and punk ideals give Mako Sica, containing two ex-members of avant/experimental band Rope, the complete freedom to create music which reflects the spirit of their chosen name.

The band's debut, Dual Horizon, was recorded and mixed by Todd Rittmann (D. Rider, US Maple, Singer) and Jim Zespy (Magnolia Electric Co.) at Logan Hardware. The sessions were captured completely live without any over-dubs and the result is a powerful and natural forty minute cycle in album form. Layered guitars emerge then disappear, primitive rhythms echo around ancient vocal chants and dark electric grooves lead the journey through a desert of unexpected peaks, valleys, and micro-songs. Their lengthy cinematic approach recalls Godspeed You Black Emperor! with the expressive freedom and abandon of Soft Machine and hometown heroes The Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Side A's twenty minute cycle begins with "I'itoi", a song named for a mythological Native American god who lives in a mountain cave and watches over the desert. The voice of a dark storm on the horizon recalls a forgotten voice of ancients stirred by Fuscaldo's visit to the Painted Desert. The menacing, enigmatic tones reflect a lack of written history and the dependence on folklore to tell the cautionary tales of injustices that predicted America's rampant growth and industrialization.

"5th One is the Dark" incorporates elements of an arid land and a quenching sea, growing tidal waves that crest into quiet, murky vocals until the stillness is suddenly disrupted by an unforgiving nature. Like most of the record, the track channels the growth and destruction of a ghostly civilization. Nature and landscape are in focus while signs of life are obscure and blurred into the background.

Side B is the lone "Dunes", a twenty minute final opus and literal metaphor. Under wide open spaces and giant looming skies, a sand dune seems taller without the comparative perspective of buildings, structures, or trees. In a creative climate over-saturated with ideas disconnected from ritual and tradition, Mako Sica delivers with Dual Horizon their honest and open version of an ancient and resonating truth.