If early indicators are anything to go by, it seems that 2005 is the year raga-rock will make its triumphant comeback. Led by former Brian Jonestown Massacre guitarist/co-founded Matt Hollywood, this Portland psychedelic troupe use Physical Graffitti-era Led Zeppelin as their holy talisman, crafting a sound that's both airily engaging and blissfully supercharged. A perplexing yet auspicious debut, Then I Saw the Holy City owes nothing and everything to Hollywood's former employer; its dulcet tones are bathed in the same resin-caked luminescence as Methadrone, yet it remains free of the false pretenses and misguided messianic mantras that have become hallmarks of BJM's scatty brilliance.

Like most albums of its ilk, Then I Saw the Holy City is a thoroughly over-indulgent affair, brimming with trippy guitar codas, smack-mouthed interludes and tunes that drift off into the night like burning incense. The burning fuzz tone that Hollywood employs throughout the record is the centerpiece of its sound, around which his bandmates fashion everything from lilting odes to pharmaceutical pleasure ("All I Want"), to Middle Eastern-flecked balladry extolling filthy virtues ("If You're God"), and Spiritualized-aping, gospel-tinged bliss-outs ("Drugsick"). Though it could use with a bit of trimming (its 14 tracks clock in a hefty 73 minutes), Then I Saw the Holy City's coma-fried highs are enough to make even the stodgiest slack-jaw sit up and take flight.