Here's the latest from this always insane duo, this time recorded over the course of two years with additional contributions of source material made using violin, viola, upright bass, vocals/speech, and a few wind instruments. A continuing concept with the band's preceding recorded works, like their last effort this material is more experimental noise based, immediately kicking off on disc one ("Cancer") with the brief "The Onset of Life" and its glitchy electronic noise and programmed percussion with one quick chug of distorted guitars. This then shifts into the similarly short, glitchy, and chaotic "The New Delirium", where some oddball vocal contributions and abstract trumpet are layered into the mix; while "Damage Fractal Series I" (a three-part, 12-minute epic) rips into some technical metal riffing with blasting drum machines right off the bat before eventually landing on some restrained dark ambient soundscapes. Such undercurrents transition into the second portion of the trilogy, "Intrusive Imagination", which is the most consistent and laidback passage of the disc in its seven minutes of excellently flowing dark ambient mastery. After another relatively quick foray into a more chaotic and improvisational spurt using live drums and strangely manipulated bass, the last two tracks are joined as a couplet of sorts, each topping nine minutes and totaling nearly 20 together!? "Bedridden" surprisingly opens with melodic clean guitars and soft, distant leads that actually work together to create a truly emotional atmosphere that's very unlike the preceding content, making for a powerful change of pace that certainly alters the dynamic of the album. Eventually windy distortion fades in and the piece carefully shifts into another experimental passage, though it still retains a better sense of control and feeling, reintroducing some quaint guitar melodies to close out the selection. Fucking excellent. Thankfully a similar approach continues in "(In)voluntary Emotional Response", with lush clean guitars and low-end swells backed by increasingly loud and vaguely distorted lead melodies (manipulated to sound more like synths) that eventually take over. These sounds aren't as calm or effective as the intro, but even though they persist for the duration of the composition this is still one of the stronger areas of the disc by far. Disc two ("Cancer; Decay"), also contains seven tracks, though it's significantly longer when all is said and done. Another couplet kicks things off, first with the churning rhythmic noise and strange vocal work of "Bedsores for (G.W.B.)", leading into more than 12 minutes of abstract noises and percussive cutups in "Involuntary Physical Response". Two-parter "Damage Fractal Series II" again locks in with distorted bass and raw live percussion, but not for long, as reruns of glitchy electronics and restrained ambience are close behind - and more efficiently arranged in "Insalubrity Serves Me", which keeps the bass and drums in check more often than not, employing some tactful feedback and throbbing low-end. A quick and schizophrenic segue later it's "Damage Fractal Series III", subtitled "Cylindrical Bereavement Summarizing its Orientations", which is another rather jarring display of varying noisescapes that jumps from billowy drones and minimal hums to quick fits of zany cutups and snippets of musical recognition. So how does it all end? With one massive 20-minute jaunt that has an insane title, of course. "Temporarily Dissolving Into Plasma During a Moment to One's Self" is the whopper of this disc, fading in with a nominal low-end pulse and slowly introducing sparse clean melodies akin to the powerful close of disc one - an approach which continues throughout the track's entirety and makes me a happy man, indeed! Now, the layout... well... I don't like it. The cover looks nice, and I enjoy that there's barely any text on the outer packaging, but everything else is too jumbled and digital in texture, coming across like meagerly collaged imagery and annoying Photoshop effects splattered with bland and uninteresting text arrangements. Does that type of look fit the music? Possibly, in the sense that the music represents a garbled and diverse approach that runs all over the place and is, simply put, peculiar. But the quality... that's where I disagree with the design. It simply doesn't provide enough quality to meet the music. The text accompaniments are presented like "lyrics", where sometimes the writing is emulating the sounds of chopped up vocal samples ("Aah oh ooh eee kay dee zee," for example), and other areas are more narrative and... intellectual? "Numerically embarrassed on interesting victimization, neverending immaturity or accessible mis-translation - discriminate inversely, eliminating enormous abstract..." Say what!? I would actually love to hear these two explore the more melodic and controlled aspects of their work for a full release, or at least more often, as that material is simply astounding here. I'm a huge fan of such exploits, but I know that's not in keeping with the band's vision or obscurely conceptual basis at all, so I'm very much willing to accept the good with the not-as-good - as nothing herein is all that "bad", the entire affair is a significant step up from their previous efforts, straight down to the sound quality. It's also a much more listenable piece of work, especially considering its length and the band's reputation for painting with a riotously colorful musical palette. So yes, this is a good record. Easily the best yet from Infidel?/Castro! And even though they've still got room to improve, they're really showing signs of something more wholly fleshed out with this double-CD. Nicely done, and I'll look forward to more.
[Crucial Blast]
Running time - 1:29:18, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: Intrusive Imagination, Bedridden, (In)voluntary Emotional Response, Insalubrity Serves Me, Temporarily Dissolving Into Plasma During a Moment to One's Self]
Crucial Blast - http://www.crucialblast.net
