It was a dreary August evening, and the band was driving home on a two-lane highway along the Illinois River. We had just played an exhausting gig, so our guitarist put some slower acoustic music in the CD player. Whatever it was put us all in a trance, and the music matched the atmosphere of a foggy old highway in the middle of the night so well.

The album was Lewis & Clarke's Bare Bones and Branches, and I immediately fell in love with its genre-bending unique sound. I couldn't quite put my finger on what made Lewis & Clarke so good, but they had a presence about them that was hard to find at the time.

Lewis & Clarke continues to evolve their sound, and Blasts of Holy Birth shows that the band is not afraid to stretch out and try new things. Blasts of Holy Birth has an ethereal quality about it that sets it apart, and it's the perfect chill out album after a hard days work.

The first sign that Blasts of Holy Birth is a more diverse album than its predecessor is actually in the album cover. Instead of the usual melancholic, faux-vintage tan-on-brown style of the typical indie album cover (and the cover of Bare Bones and Branches), the album cover comes alive in lush color. It looks like an impressionistic vision of a forest, and has that feeling of altered consciousness that's almost like a throwback to 1967. Either way, the album cover is fitting for how Blasts of Holy Birth works musically and artistically.

Of course, what's an album cover worth if the music is no good? Luckily, Blasts of Holy Birth delivers in a big way. It immediately opens with "Secret of the Golden Flower," an orchestral motif that the band returns to throughout the album. "Secret of the Golden Flower" is the only full instrumental track on Blasts of Holy Birth, and it's also the shortest song; most of the album's songs clock in at well over six minutes. It's an album that is easy to get lost in, which fits just right with its soothing qualities.

Lewis & Clarke then transitions into the next song, the title track "Blast of Holy Birth." Introducing a lush collection of new and old instruments, Lewis & Clarke shows us what this album seeks to accomplish. "Blasts of Holy Birth" doesn't come at you with full force; rather, it uses cello and percussion instruments on top of an accompanying acoustic guitar to set a light orchestral mood. Lead singer Lou Rogai sings: "there's a nervous kind of energy that suddenly fills the room," and these lyrics summarize the experience of listening to Blasts of Holy Birth: it is always on the verge of explosion, yet soothes and relaxes at the same time.