If you're looking for just the right soundtrack to take the Trans Am out for a spin across the spiral arms of the galaxy, then please allow me to suggest the primarily instrumental "Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting" album from a band called, It's Not Night, It's Space. Shadows and possible inspirations abound as diverse as Nugent's “Stranglehold”, Apocalyptica's original, non-commercial stuff, Sabbath (of course), the jammier days of Pink Floyd, My Bloody Valentine, King Crimson, Quest For Fire's "The Hawk That Hunts the Walking," Monster Magnet's trippiest stuff, and the entirety of modern Stoner Metal.

Lots of layers, generous feeds of guitar noise, atmospheres upon atmospheres, enough wah-wah pedal to make Kirk Hammett jealous, minimal vocals - - but it's the primary riffs draped across the strata that really makes INNIS ascendant. They're somehow familiar-sounding, yet fresh and wordlessly provocative. The music is heavy in almost every sense; contemplative, meditative, cosmic as Galactus, and as deep as an obelisk full of stars. The album title, song titles, and musical passages speak to grandiosity of thought, musings on interstellar and inter-psyche journeys and transitions. "Our Birth is But a Sleep and a Forgetting" has intelligence, meticulous song development, and plenty of ‘Starry Wisdom’, as the name of track 4 would convey. The target audience for this kind of thing is bound to be small; Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera will never compete for their attention, but I doubt if that's their intent. It's Not Night, It's Space are a lovely discovery for the thinking music listener.