The first of these is Asheville, NC-based trio (now a duo) Ahleuchatistas, whose difficult-to-pronounce name still isn't as difficult as their formerly wildly jump-cutting, now more minimalist and textural music. I'm cooler than you because I've talked to their guitarist and made him play a rearrangement of an Ahleuchatistas song at a cafe gig where he was playing jazz standards because I'm an asshole, but I'll try not to let that condescension seep into these reviews, which will be briefer than normal because this review discusses 5 albums.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I do in fact realize that Ahleuchatistas is definitely set to release another album, and possibly several more, in the future, rendering this "discography" obsolete, but I won't update this review when it does. If I feel like it, I'll just review that album, or those albums, one at a time, or perhaps, if they release enough, group them together in a new review called "Ahleuchatistas discography, Part II". This applies to any band who releases a new album after I've done a discography overview.
On the Culture Industry
The band's first album is more simplistic, less idiosyncratic, and weaker than any of their other releases, but it's still really damn good. "The Machines Became Cognizant", "Lacerate", and "A Thought Like A Hammer" (tracks 2, 3, and 4, respectively) are some of my favorite Ahleuchatistas compositions, in fact. However, their improvisations are still more scattershot and tedious than they would become by the bonus tracks on the second album (which still aren't particularly thrilling. Pre-Even in the Midst... Ahleuchatistas should've just refrained from improvising in song-length form). Also, though it's sometimes cool to hear guitarist Shane Perlowin's jazz influence a little more noticeably on this outing, track 10, "Tentacle", has a swing-feel section which makes the listener (me) feel like utilizing said influences in this project was a horrifically poor choice.
Rating: 8/10
The Same and the Other
Out of print for a couple years until the amazing John Zorn's amazing label Tzadik reissued and remastered it. This was my favorite Ahleuchatistas record for a while, but it's somewhat inconsistent. The more dissonant, jump-cutting tracks really aren't as strong as those on the next album, where they reached their overall peak, in my humble opinion. Honestly, the reason this record was my favorite was because of one track, "The Day The Earth Stood Still", which has an intro that is positively orgasmic. A King Crimson-ish guitar pattern against sporadic, overly-complex bass and drum interjections for nearly a minute? Oh HELL yes.
Rating: 9/10
What You Will
SO damn good. The short and spastic tracks reached their apex here, as I mentioned in the last sub-review. A few of them are just over a minute, but they go off in enough directions to sustain five or ten. Sometimes, this is just unnecessary, as the listener (again, me) ends up begging for one of their trademark lockstep refrains o' mathy goodness (see: "Shell in Ogoniland", which I hate disliking because the Pitchfork reviewer also disliked it) but other times, especially on "Ho Chi Minh is Gonna Win!" (one of their best titles, too, btw, imo, rofl, fubar) this ends up resulting in a wellspring of creativity that makes the most of its brief length. In addition, closer "You Know My Family" is one of their best long-form, textural tracks, partially because it isn't entirely freeform and dull.
Rating: 9.5/10
Even in the Midst...
This was my least favorite record of theirs for quite a while due to two factors, which I will outline below.
1) They really play up their improvisational, or at least free-flowing and less through-composed side, often in a fashion that is very textural to an inaccessible degree.
2) Before I got the record, Cameron mentioned it was his introduction to the band, and he has an unparalleled knack for finding a band's weakest record as their starting point and judging them for it. Sure enough, he didn't like it, and my first couple of listen-throughs kept this in mind, because I let my peers decide what music I enjoy because I'm a sell-out poseur.
Anyway, fuck Cameron and me-of-as-little-as-two-months-ago. This is a great goddamn record, mostly because the lengthy rubato-time tracks are, for the first time, comparably good in relation to the extremely intricate math-rock ones. Also, speaking of those mathy songs, they reached critical mass here in terms of complexity. One listen to "...Of All This" or "Brilliant Danderkovs" will confirm this for you. Actually, some are so complex they almost sound non-composed at points. This is a good thing.
Rating: 8.75/10
Of the Body Prone
Former drummer Sean Dail was sacked and replaced by Ryan Oslance (actually, I don't know if he was fired or just left, and honestly, it's probably the latter and I'm just a negative nancy, because Oslance, though he plays more powerfully than Dail, is not orders of magnitude better or anything). This signaled a shit for the band. Actually, a shift, but that's a funny typo because it's a naughty word and I'm 8 years old, so I won't change it. Anyway, the mathiness is only found on a few select tracks, like "Racing Towards the Hard Kernel", which is so good that I usually ejaculate after listening to it (so what if I'm also masturbating to pornography at the same time? Ever heard of a little thing called "coincidence", [or for my religious friends, "intelligent design"]?), but that's okay because the first track whose name escapes me proves that they have now merged the two formerly disparate threads of their sound and the results are stunning. That opening track is over 8 minutes long and has 4 distinct sections, which run the gamut from nimble, lockstep group interplay to invertebrate effects-laden bits. Oh yeah, that's the other thing. Perlowin didn't really use effects much until this record, and with it, he made up for lost time, but tastefully. Anyway, each of those sections are good, and it makes me hopeful for the new incarnation of the group, which is now just Perlowin and Oslance, and is built around a lot of loops and shit, I guess, because it proves the group no longer falls back to their comfort zone by default and can do whatever they want. You know what's hilarious? This is the longest review on here by a fairly large margin and I'm rating this album the second-lowest, because parts of the record's second half are nearly as bad as On the Culture Industry's second half, even though I just said they had the hang of improv at this point.
Rating: 8.5/10
SOME FURTHER NOTES BECAUSE I ALMOST FORGOT THEM:
1. Bassist Derek Poteat (now former bassist because, according to Shane, he had other responsibilities, like his family, that were more important to him, the PRICK) plays basslines that are generally contrapuntal to the point of hilarity, making him one of Andrew's and my top ten bassists.
2. Their new album should come out in 2011, so if these reviews piqued your curiosity, you will have to wait in anticipation like I have to, and FUCK YOU if you get a leak (because I want it first!)
