Olfactory Rescue Service

One day in conversation within the last year I mentioned to Josh Matthews of Dimension 5 that I had some Tibetan incense powders including some older ones stored away. If I’m remembering this correctly, Josh expressed some curiosity over what he might be able to do with these powders and so I sent him samples of I think three or four of them, including the long-deleted Highland powder. Readers who have been around on ORS for a while remember that some of Essence of the Ages early finds from Tibet included both the Highland stick and powder. The stick was brilliant at first, mutated to something less brilliant (but still quite good) and then vanished. The powder was also brilliant and not only did I have most of a package of it but somewhere along the line Ross sent me his package as well. Ross had resealed his after maybe sampling it once or twice and I also never got around to heating/burning my own very often, but I did notice when I’d go back to sample that this powder aged incredibly slowly and was still quite viable even though I’d had it for 15 years or so. So I packaged a sample up with some others (I want to say Samye, Mindroling (both older batches), and Wara (bought from incense-traditions more recently) and sent them out to him.

After some time, the door creaked open, there was some rattling, clinking and then a billow of smoke, and Josh emerged none the worse for wear with four, I repeat, four incense stick variations he had worked on, combining the Highland incense powder with animalics, premium woods and other ingredients. As anyone who has experienced his incense knows, these were not haphazard formulas, they were carefully crafted to work with the notes of the Highland incense powder in all sorts of interesting, variant and ultimately incredible smelling ways. The results of getting samples of these meant that I soon sent him Ross’ much larger package, only holding back a bit of the pure powder, I think, from my original stash, mostly for reference. Amidst some of the recent marvels coming from his label, the new floral line and the kyaras, I then received a couple tubes of his experiments with the Wara powder which were also fabulous. Then, a bit later, the three Highland based blends that Josh wanted to offer to the public and that I’m going to review here, one of which is a slight revamp of the original V.3 I received, and the other two brand new. Think of these like Tibetan grades except there is no order in quality, absolutely all of them are truly brilliant. Anyway, hopefully you clicked on the above link to my original review of the Highland powder as a starter. I feel largely the same about the powder except to note that I doubt this would have stayed as viable if it did have a lot of extracts and oils, but for sure the creators blended it to last. I’ve often heard that some incenses are supposed to improve with aging and I’m thinking this could be one of them. Most sticks I’ve managed to try that have lasted that long have usually lost a great deal of their power, but I’ve never noticed much in the way of any difference in this powder over the span of time.

As a powder heavy in musk and spices, Josh used a number of different animal sourced musks to complement these. V. 3 takes the Highland incense powder, adds civet, muskrat, and hyraceum (these three animalics are in every incense in this review), as well as Vietnamese agarwood. All of the musks highlight those in the powder while the cherry-note fronted agarwood (and a fantastic one to boot) gives it all a really unique and lovely twist, creating a sort of sweetness and spice that expands the palate of the powder considerably, creating all sorts of new interactions. The animalics are particularly powerful in this one, giving their potent stamp on the nearby environment, heavy and memory impressive. In fact, after rotating this from V 7 during review, the potency of both the incense and the animalics themselves were particularly highlighted. The new ingredients bring the Highland powder up to a premium level, while the powder provides a plethora of notes for these ingredients to interact with. Of the original four I received, this is one of the incenses in Josh’s first test group, but I believe there were only slight refinements, as there wasn’t any need to make it much better than it already was. This Tibetan-Japanese hybrid, if you will, really charts out some interesting new territory in incense, a whole range of interactions and combinations not found commonly elsewhere. I’d even add that between its original and this version, I’ve sampled this over a half dozen times and it feels more impressive with each use. It’s almost like you wouldn’t necessarily think that the powder would match well with a sweeter aloeswood but then it does oh so well.

Highland X D5 V. 6 is quite a bit different and to use a Baieido comparison, it’s sort of like the Hakusui to the V 3’s Ogurayama (wood or stick). The ingredients listed include the Highland powder, along with both Kalimantan and Papua agarwood, which are then matched with cinnamon, clove and benzoin, and the three animalics. I noticed with this one that I was constantly reminded of other Japanese incenses, for sure it has the same sort of spice and wood mix to something like Tennendo’s Kuukai, but then in a different setting, it reminded me of the leather, male cologne, and stubble mix of Baieido’s Kai Un Koh. The difference is that the aloeswoods are excellent in this one, and so the mix frequently gives you some wonderful, charry, black resin notes that almost mutate due to the presence and power of the animalics. The panoply of combinates that arise from all these interactions is quite impressive, I was getting desert notes, wheat, fire, liquor, saltiness and a really great sort of mix with the turpentine/lacquer notes you get from the woods. It’s a very heady incense, maybe even subtly erotic due to the way the masculine notes meet the musks. The Highland powder plays all over as well subtly mixing with all of the added notes to either bring out aspects of the powder or match them with something complementary. Of the three incenses here this is the most complex and perhaps the wildest.

V. 7 takes the Highland powder and the same animalics as in the previous two Vs, but combines these with Mysore sandalwood and benzoin, which definitely changes the whole base compared to the previous incenses. The effect of using sandalwood rather than agarwood is that the latter sort of creates an edifice to build on while using fine Mysore powder strengthens the Highland powder’s foundation, as if it dares you to imagine a finer grade of sandalwood was used to create it originally. The difference in woods also makes you pay attention to the relationship these ingredients have with the three animalics. They’re not quite as sharply used on this one, more delicately placed, which feels appropriate without having the agarwood resins to highlight. Josh uses these animalics pretty liberally in these incenses. I don’t think any of them are overdone, but V. 7 may have been my favorite placement of them, as like the Mysore powder, they kind of easily substitute for the Highland Powder’s own muskier elements. So in a way this might actually be the closest one of these sticks gets to making an actual high-end Highland incense. I often get this sort of desert-like impression with sandalwood incenses as the good stuff can have some drier elements (especially when you think sandalwood still largely ages in its trees rather than buried underground) which sort of relate differently to the spices. So of all the versions I’ve tried, this one actually feels the closest to the powder itself in match, but don’t discount what even these quality ingredients can do to transform this. It was towards the very end of my appraisal that I started to notice how the benzoin sweetens this and at the same time I would get notes like dried peaches which added a real subtlety to the mix.

I do really want to stress that this sort of Japan meets Tibet style of hybridization is quite rare indeed. With all the descriptions given, I still can’t underline enough how fun and clever this project is and it may be just the start. There’s something really special about a lot of real Tibetan incenses, in terms of how wild and original they are, so creating a sort of partnership with the high-end world really brings a lot of amazing new smells and energies. If interested in purchasing, contact Josh at dimension5incense@gmail.com for pricing and information. Josh also talks about his incenses at www.instagram.com/dimension_5_incense.