After the expansive Middle Eastern drone of 2009′s God Is Good, it’s surprising (in a very, very good way) to hear Al Cisneros’s Om return in 2012 with some relatively straightforward stoner-doom. Relative, that is, to Om, of course. New track “State Of Non-Return” — the first music to emerge from the band’s forthcoming Advaitic Songs — bursts out the gate with some roiling downtuned riffage and a pummeling midtempo rhythm, but as the layers of low-end volume are peeled away, an otherworldly string section carries the whole thing to the heavens. Check it out.

Advaitic Songs is out 7/24 via Drag City.