Hecla & Griper

I was so excited to hear that this was finally being pressed on vinyl. Then I recieved it and took it for a spin. It is mastered so heavy on bass that I downloaded the mp3 to make sure that my vinyl wasn't just a bad copy and even the mp3's sounded heavy on bass. Not happy with the sound at all. However, the extra tracks were nice to hear.

"Hecla & Griper", released the same year as Songs: Ohia's self-titled debut, showcases Jason Molina's genius and talent even further with this set of short, sparse, and frequently catchy set of songs. The lyrics are deep and speculative, gaining a center of well deserved attention throughout each song, along with the uniquely Songs: Ohia instrumentation style. It's certainly a classic over 10 years later and still retains that punch of all early Songs: Ohia albums. Or rather, ALL Songs: Ohia albums! Every song on this 8 track EP is worthy of listening to, so there's absolutely no reason why it should be missing from your collection. Highlights include "Pass", "All Pass", "Declarer", "East Last Heart"...ah, every song is great! This is the segue between the lovely debut and the masterful "Impala", so check those out as well if you haven't. This is, indeed, an essential EP to own to get a further dose of the Songa: O experience.

One star for amazon's false advertising. I ordered this hoping to get the CD version with the four bonus tracks that were including on the LP reissue from this spring. Amazon's description described it as exactly that. When I received it, it was just the original CD with the original eight tracks. Judging from the artists featured in the inserted Secretly Canadian catalog it was a repressing from around 2008.