"Whenever Neurosis comes to town, it's certainly an event. There's a palpable sense of excitement and anticipation, as much for the rarity of the occasion as their unbelievable sovereignty over the live experience... It's a cliche for sure, but if I were to encourage people to see one band before they die, Neurosis would be top of that list.

It was November 2006, almost a year since their last excursion to our Sceptered Isle, but this weekend was going to be even more unique. Not only were we going to be treated to a Neurosis performance of stellar proportions, but Scott Kelly, Noah Landis & Josh Graham were all going to be in town one day longer to play their debut European show as Blood & Time. Needless to say, if we had to drag them kicking and screaming into our studio, we were going to use all our wiliness to get them to record a Latitudes Session whilst they were here. Thankfully they graciously accepted immediately.

I was curious to see if, a paltry few hours after such a cathartic experience as a Neurosis set (which ended in such aggression and chaos), the trio would be able to summon up anything like the level of focused intensity that their sole album At The Foot Of The Garden was shot through with. I needn't have worried.

As I walked along the hallway towards the control room, the hairs on my arms stood on end when I registered an eerily familiar melody issuing forth, played slower, and with more gravitas than I was used to hearing it. It took a moment to place the song as the vocals were not there yet. I was hearing a skeletal version of the Townes Van Zandt's enigmatic chiller Rake being played with the conviction of a condemned man. I realised there and then that we had another magical Latitudes moment on our hands. Listening to the finished session, with its sense of unhurried, unfolding majesty, it's odd to imagine that it was recorded in such an on-the-hoof manner in a matter of hours, before racing across the capital to play one of the best live sets I have ever witnessed."

Blood and Time: Latitudes

Tony Sylvester, Southern Records, June 2007