The title of this CD, according to a note on its sleeve, refers to a phenomenon predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity: "spacetime [becomes] distorted near spinning black holes, a phenomenon called 'frame dragging.'" Taking the title seriously, as more than just a cool-sounding phrase, one could extrapolate a music of such sonic density that the normal markers of musical spacetime - notes, rhythms, discernible individual tones - become distorted, in thrall to the overwhelming gravitational force of the music's sonic mass. Aleutian (former owners of the rather lame name Gluestick) don't quite live up to that intriguing description - but they do produce an intriguing CD full of dramatic, spacey guitar, drenching keyboards reminiscent of Pornography-era Cure, and haunted, violin-ridden vistas. "Ghost in the Atom" persists in reminding me of an early Doors song mercifully ridden of Jim Morrison (both halves of this comparison are good things), and "Siren on the Sea" seems to approach that hypothetical frame-dragged music in the way its backdrop of effects and samples overwhelm what's normally the musical foreground, producing a darkly glowing murky eye of sound.

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