The Very Heart of the World is only Yeh's second widely available release, but its weary-eyed demeanor was forged over the course of a decade in the trenches. Yeh's scabrous creations recall Matthew Bower's work as Skullflower, but somehow they sound even more desolate -- like the works of Rachmaninoff dredged through the dust and clay of the rust belt. This time out, Yeh has enlisted members of Wolf Eyes, Hair Police and Von Hemmerling to help do his dirty bidding, and the additional firepower serves his compositions well: his mates' burbling tape loops, funereal organ dirges and scathing blasts of power electronics fill the gaps between Yeh's effects-laden violin, guitar and gong.

While each of the album's four compositions is built upon layers of mind-melting drone and descending arpeggios, Yeh is careful never to bore his haywire vessels into the ground, adding layers of molten feedback and carefully chosen (if utterly demented) melody lines to weave their way through the debris. If you're thinking that nothing on Earth can possibly sound as demonically austere as this, think again. Subtlety has never been Yeh's forte, and while the methods he uses to bend sound into terrifying new shapes are often beguiling, they're never the least bit beautiful. The Very Heart of the World is an ironically fitting title for an album that has no pulse, no feeling and no animus. It's unlikely to endear itself to many listeners, but it's backbreaking, often hideous forty minute trek that proves that human beings have only just scratched the surface of what sound can accomplish -- or in some cases, demolish.

The Very Heart of the World, Burning Star Core has created an incredibly heavy record, built on dense, layered drones, pulses, splintered vocals, and deep rhythms that euphorically build to total overload. With a lineup including the Hair Police front line and other luminaries from across the exploding Midwestern psych/noise underground, C. Spencer Yeh has assembled a group that seamlessly shifts through epic movements and pushes pure rock energy to undeniable, massive sound. Expanding on what was hinted at on the collaboration LP with Comets on Fire earlier this year, The Very Heart of the World is a definitive statement of the evolving Burning Star Core sound.