The best album of the year so far is Conference of the Birds by Om, on the Holy Mountain label. I may get around to writing about it at some point, but then again I may not, because every time I listen to it I go into this a state of waking catatonia. It's like that dream Lionel Richie had in "Say You, Say Me," which wasn't just a dream, but an awesome dream: it's a trance, but a trance from which one periodically emerges to say "fuck me, this music is righteous." You won't hear a cleaner bass tone anywhere this year, I'd wager. Or next year. Or the year after that.