"Spires That in the Sunset Rise, the duo composed of Ka Baird and Taralie Peterson, has been around since 2001, which is crazy, because that was eighteen years ago now, and also 9/11 happened then (#NeverForget). Somebody compared them to Sun City Girls once, and who am I to judge. (Oh right, music critic. Still, carry on.) Now, on their first release for Astral Spirits, the duo get "ecstatic," that is, "House Ecstatic," the name of this tape, which has a subtitle, "(Cover Your Blood)," that I guess helps us line up our expectations a little bit. See, each track is titled "X stat [number]," like each one is a hit to the bloodstream, and each piano trill and sax blurt and clarinet run and flute ... jab (?) spikes through your heartbeat like adrenalized lightning. There's the blood! Ecstasy in the blood. There are weird chant-y voices on here too, which sort of heighten the playfulness of this partnership at points, like when they meet the shaker percussion on "X stat twentyfive," for example. In the end, the pairing of Spires and Astral Spirits is perfect, and why hasn't it happened sooner, I wonder? Seriously, somebody tell me."-Ryan Masteller, Tabs Out