For decades YaHoWha? has gained respect among rock aficionados as a strange cult band. Sure they could grasp the curving unpredictable textures of psych-rock, askew blues into wild angels, but their playing lacked expertise and they were niche and often pigeonholed as outsider music whose amateurishness was its charm, whose eccentricity escorted the interest rather than the heavy sound.

Forget about all that. YaHoWha? understands what I want to hear when I put on old psych records. Sonic Proportions easily outshines the recent Drag City releases of their excellent “Lost Tapes” (Magnificence of Memory and Song From The Source). The band now comprises original members Sunflower (bass), Octavius (percussion) and Djin (electric and acoustic guitars) and these guys have spent the last 30 years practicing, because YaHoWha? return after a 33 year absence with a collection of psychedelic jams that surpasses any of their previous improvisational creations. Yes, it’s a real barnburner and eerie; as if they’ve been studying and vivisecting every facet of late 60s and early 70s private pressings, comparing/contrasting what exactly constitutes the dynamics of such styles, to consolidate its ingredients and spotlight only its most vivid essential components.

The songs are also hymns. YaHoWha’s performances are expressions of a spiritual conduit. In the liner notes the opening track’s (“E Ah O Shin”) lyrics are explained as “a play on words and letters. The essential vowel sounds of ‘ya ho wa’ are E Ah O, E Ah O Ah. The Ancient Hebrew letter for the Holy Spirit is the triple flamed Shin, which is invoked by the sounding of E Ah O. We added the Shin on after to sound like the word Ocean indicating the vastness and depth of the Infinite Within.” So by singing along to the meditative phrases the listener participates in the prayers. And let that fact terrify those with great, medium, and little faith in the divine that dare to listen; because although YaHoWha possesses absolutely no desire to use Sonic Proportions as a recruitment tool, it’s possible of it becoming a powerful one.

Find out more at http://www.yahowha13.com/