Album Reviews

Following Palms, Chino Moreno is back with another one of his side-projects. This one is more electronic-tinged, like the short-lived Team Sleep. And whereas Palms saw Moreno bro’ing with the guys in Isis, this time around he teamed up with Far guitarist Shaun Lopez (who also produced the album) and Chuck Doom. The original idea was to release a series of EPs… which they did if two constitutes a series. There was a third one planned but instead we now get a full-length that boasts the ten songs from the first EPs and five new songs that would’ve made up EP number three.

Think Nine Inch Nails minus the parts that sting. Or Filter if you are one of the few people who still remembers those guys. Gentle beats reminded me of triphop gods Portishead and propel the songs onward, synths and sequencers are wielded like guitars and actual guitars pop up in all the right places. And over it all there’s Moreno’s voice, mostly laid-back and mellow as fuck unless he’s screaming his lungs out in “Bi†ches Brew” and “†his Is A †rick”. Oh yeah, all of the songs have a ‘t’ in them so it could be replaced by ‘†’… smart guys, wicked smart.

With 15 songs, this album is pimped out like a car with 50 inch rims, yet not all of the songs are equally convincing. Cuts like “†elepa†hy” (is there such a thing as disco noir? There is now!) and the relaxed vibes of “Bermuda Locke†” are awesome but then there’s “Nine†een Nine†y Four” which should have been left on the cutting floor. If they trimmed the album down a little here and there, it would’ve been great fun but a couple of filler tracks put a brake on the flow of the album.