Evangelicals

There must be something in the soil down there in Oklahoma. The place has had a profound effect on creativity, as exemplified by acts like the Flaming Lips, Colourmusic and, most recently, Evangelicals. Some of the varying experiments of giddy psychedelia are perhaps the fruit of too many drugs, while others may just be mid-church hallucinations brought on by the searing boredom of the surroundings. Whatever the case, Evangelicals have clearly ingested heroic doses, as the troupe somehow manages to sound darker, dreamier and druggier than its fellow Oakies -- no small feat. So Gone, the group's Misra debut, more than lives up to its name as it explodes into a fury of manic, Holy Spirit-induced bliss manifesting itself through strange flourishes of glowing chimes and eerie cries that mimic distortion. The vivid, messy overall effect proves that living in barren places can be dazzlingly fruitful.