Grails - Burning Off Impurities

Burning Off Impurities is the record where Grails fully turned toward the psychedelic. Released in 2007 on Temporary Residence, the Portland band's third album left the tidy crescendos of post-rock behind for something dustier, stranger and far more global in its reach.

The four-piece of Emil Amos, Alex Hall, Zak Riles and William Slater recorded and mixed the album themselves, and it shows in how freely the instruments move. Acoustic guitars, banjo, oud and pedal steel weave through heavy drums and sampler loops, with harmonica, trumpet and violin from guest players adding colour. "Soft Temple" and "Silk Rd" carry an Eastern drone, "Drawn Curtains" and "Dead Vine Blues" lean toward cosmic Americana, and the title track closes in a long, hypnotic burn.

Critics received it warmly at the time, and it has aged into one of the band's most beloved albums, the blueprint for everything they would do next.

Presented as a 2LP set on black vinyl.