Thursday, July 26, 2007

Burnt Hills - Cloud Nine

This is the first I've heard from Burnt Hills, and is another release from the lovely Tape Drift imprint. I had no real idea what to expect from this release but I should say that I enjoyed what I heard. This band has a lot of members, nearly ten, and most play multiple instruments on this recording. The first few tracks contained what sounded like controlled cacaphony. The sound at the beginning had guitars, lots of them. I couldn't quite tell exactly how many were going at once, but it was certainly more than just rhythm and lead. The walls of distorted guitar and driving rhythms of multiple drummers kept the music more focused than it might have been otherwise. The percussionists stayed together remarkably well and steered the band in a direction that recalled many noisy Mars Volta bootlegs as well as Tarentel, albeit much more chaotic.

This band stays pretty consistent throughout this cd and they seems to communicate well musically even with so many musicians contributing to the chaos. There are times in the cd that sound unfocused, but these are mere fleeting moments in comparison to the rest of the whole. This release would be a great addition to any fan of "Ghetto Beats on the Surface of the Sun" by Tarentel or to jam music in general.

8/10 This release may be purchased at www.tapedrift.com

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