It was clear from the last Lamp of the Universe record, Acid Mantra, that Kiwi psychedelicist Craig Williamson was looking to do something a little more structured. Williamson, who cut his riffing teeth playing in underrated head rockers Datura, emerges from the cosmic ether now as bassist/vocalist/etc. in the trio Arc of Ascent, which continues some of Lamp of the Universe’s psychedelic exploration, but puts said psychedelia — which comes on thanks to sitar, tanpura, synths, bells, chanting, and so forth; all of which are credited to Williamson — in a more outwardly heavy context. Make no mistake, we’re still reaching out to the farthest uncharted regions of spiritual innerspace, but now we’re doing it with thick guitar riffs! Never know what you’ve been missing until you find it.

These riffs come courtesy of Matt Cole-Baker, and while it’s clear Arc of Ascent’s full-length debut, Circle of the Sun (Astral Projection) still holds its protagonist in Williamson, each member of the trio proves essential to the band’s sound, whether it’s Cole-Baker starting off the space rock groove of “The Inner Sign” or drummer John Strange falling right into place with that groove and blissing out on a tom-heavy repetition until the song kicks in. For sheer heft, Cole-Baker’s guitar stays weighty even in its lead tone, offering notes that ring out behind themselves in comet trails. Circle of the Sun works out to about 46 minutes, but with the space-themed artwork, space-themed songs and wide ranging creative breadth, it feels big and open.

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Likely I’d have bought it anyway, but what really sold me on Acid Mantra, the latest self-release from prolific deep-space psychedelic traveler Craig Williamson under the one-man-band banner of Lamp of the Universe, was when I read that it had more in common with older albums like The Cosmic Union and Echo in Light than more recent work Earth, Spirit and Sky and From the Mystic Rays of Astrological Light. Not that I didn’t enjoy those records for what they were — largely instrumental slabs of tripped-out psych from the wilds of New Zealand — but since my favorite songs from Williamson (also the bassist for the underrated Datura) are “Born in the Rays of the Third Eye” and “Lotus of a Thousand Pedals,” the thought of having more material akin to that was too much to resist purchasing.

The suggestion holds true: Acid Mantra does share much in common with Lamp of the Universe‘s early output, but it’s no more of a throwback than any of Williamson‘s output as ever been. The banjo-laden “Searching for a Sign,” for example, sounds like something you might hear on a Six Organs of Admittance record, and closer “Universe Within” even has drums! Drums and fuzzy electric guitars! Hell, I couldn’t believe it.

But it’s not necessarily that Williamson is aping himself, rather he’s just writing more active songs; songs that are more structured than have been those on his more recent collections. Acid Mantra is still psychedelic folk at its heart, with plenty of the sitars, tanpura and drones those who’ve followed Lamp of the Universe have come to expect, but they appear here tempered by more earthly elements as well. If you’re going to travel through the cosmos, you have to lift off from somewhere, right?

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