February 24, 2006

Sweating Bullets is standard. Boop 1st jam is fine. I don’t think there’s much here that is worth relistening to, though I like Barber’s patience here a lot. The Strawberry Girl jam turns into a fast-paced DNB jam to lead into the inverted Sven. I actually think once they get into the DNB section of this, what they land on is really solid. Brownstein has a really nice four-chord progression, and Magner’s sync patch works well over the top of everything. The jam out of Sven back into Strawberry Girl is actually very nice as well. Those who have read my reviews know I’m not typically the biggest fan of the band’s DNB, but they find a really nice groove here, buoyed by Barber’s little textural riffs and Brownstein’s hypnotic bassline. Lai never really steps far outside of the box, but they again develop a really solid pocket that features Magner with some interesting psychedelic patches layered over the top of the jam.

The Munchkin jam is weird. I’ll just say it. This has like a weird carnival feel to it, or almost reminds me of the old “Bobby’s World” theme song in some ways. This is not awful, but I just don’t really connect with this at all. The first I-Man jam features an 8-bar two-chord progression from the band that is really familiar. I’m not sure off the top off my head if this is a tease, or if it’s just a progression they’ve used before, but it’s pretty nice. The second I-Man jam is very pretty, and there’s a very short section where it sounds like Barber is almost teasing a theme from the videogame Chrono Trigger. Probably just a coincidence, but neat nonetheless. The jam out of Buddha into Cyclone is dark, digital, and has a swirling energy of psychedelia throughout. The band is clearly not fully in sync at this stage in their career with Allen, but jams like this strongly hint of the madness that would come from 2007-2009. This is really nice and very interesting at various parts. I wish I could say the same for the jam back into Buddha, which is just okay. The Ape jam is fine, although I should note here that I hate this song.

Highlights: Strawberry Girl, Sven, Lai, I-Man (1, 2), Buddha*