by Ned Raggett Saying this is Ionia part two pretty much sums it up -- also recorded on 4-track at home, featuring the exact same combination of sonic elements as before, Stark provides the same exact buzz [or, depending on the point of view, the same boring experience] as Ionia did. From the first song on, "And Through the Smoke and Nails," the guitars still ring and bewitchingly riff into echoing caverns, drum machines pound relentlessly, keyboards shade everything and Vanportfleet invokes images of desolation, ruin and inevitable endings. Not for nothing does the cover art feature someone dressed as Christ with a crown of wires [if not thorns] in the desert of Arizona, where Vanportfleet lived at the time. Small but effective touches again crop up here and there, as with the treated piano on "Pygmallion" and the lengthy, keyboard-driven intro to "The Morning Breaks So Cold and Gray," which sounds pretty much like how the title would describe it. Most striking are the acoustic guitars on "Goddess of the Green Fields," followed by the slightly lighter musically [if not lyrically] "Everything is Cold," where a gently ringing electric guitar carries the song. In general, though, the same thoughts apply as with Ionia -- a series of similar sounding pieces which work wonderfully as an extended mood setter.