A creative, psychedelic, math rock freak-out, filled to the rim with microtonal sounds,
Zach Hill
's
Astrological Straits
incorporates a huge roster of indie rock's elite (
Marnie Stern
,
Primus
'
Les Claypool
No Age
's two members
Randy Randall
and
Dean Spunt
Deftones
Chino Moreno
, and
Marco Benevento
Zach
Hella
bandmates
Josh Hill
Carson McWhirter
's former
bandmate
Jonathan Hischke
, the
Advantage
Robby Moncrieff
!!!
/
LCD Soundsystem
Tyler Pope
are all onboard). Playing like a more frantic version of
Battles
Mirrored
or an even more unfocused version of
This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It
(which
Hill
also drummed on),
's first solo album for
Ipecac
is a messy extravaganza that is, depending on who you ask, either extremely cerebral or painstakingly difficult. Glitch blasts and synth blips accent extreme drumming to make an abstract mess, splattered with a few sparing musical hooks. Guitar, bass, horns, synth, odd samples, and other indistinguishable sounds all blend together under a monolith of compression provided by producer/engineer
John Reed Thompson
, who assisted
in his musical deconstruction, mangling vocals through effects units and digitally mutating them into alien mutterings. If anything survived the sonic warfare, it's the outrageous flourish of drum fills. Simply put,
is freakin' fast.
"Toll Road"
has the bombastic BPM of a drum'n'bass track, sliced, diced, and served up at a rate that might make you wonder if he has a third or fourth arm (there's a reason that music journalists often compare him to an octopus). But, as well as being a resume builder to show off his technical skill behind a kit,
is much more than a typical shredding virtuoso record. It's cerebral and futuristic. It's his wildest outing, but also his most accomplished achievement to date. [The bonus disc is a sprawling half-hour drum'n'piano free jazz odyssey, with
of the
Benevento/Russo Duo
pounding the keys: it's too exhausting to be tolerable. There's really no need for its inclusion; the wealth of material to sift through on disc one should be more than enough.] ~ Jason Lymangrover