*** Giant Sand

CHORE OF ENCHANTMENT

(Thrill Jockey)

Giant Sand's hypnotic, enchanting, and sinisterly ethereal 15th album was produced by PJ Harvey collaborator John Parish, Memphis legend Jim Dickinson, and guitarist Kevin Salem in three different locations -- which gives the album a fractured, fragile undertow. Yet Chore of Enchantment still works as a cohesive, atmospheric set dominated, as always, by Howe Gelb's whispery baritone. With expansive, gentle-handed rhythm men Joey Burns and John Convertino behind him, and a lengthy line-up of empathetic guest players (including a rare peep out of Lemonheads' Evan Dando that's found only on the vinyl format's extra track), the intimacy of Gelb's poetic, tangential, mantra-like voice is never breached. Original Sand man the late Rainer Ptacek turns up with a warm, slab of earthy slide guitar in the short instrumental "Shrine." Elsewhere the jazzbo voodoo of "Wolfy" is a funky strut on the wildest side. And the chunky cowboy core of "(well) Dusted (for the millennium)" is the closest Giant Sand's rootsy, folky, jazzy, hi-lonesome sound ever comes to earthbound nuance.

-- Linda Laban