Lye By Mistake – Fea Jur – 3/5
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Forty minutes of madness that is no easy feat to assimilate; to call this release technical would be an understatement, and without any vocals rooting it, everything very quickly descends into anarchy with polyrhythms and tempo fluctuations galore that requires intent listening to follow. But don’t be thinking this is another ‘wankery’ outfit, they may make contemporaries like ‘Dillinger Escape Plan’ and ‘Rolo Tomassi’ look like simplistic amateurs, but they don’t stoop to the lows of pointlessness that ‘Behold…the Arctopus’ get praised for. Instead, they have a spell binding trick up their sleeve: jazz.
Though it is fairly difficult to describe what kind of jazz is being offered; the drummer like some weird mix of Reinhert (Cynic) and Tsagakis (Rx Bandits, Sounds of Animals Fighting), varying from blistering beats to gentle lounge melodies, he never drops the pace and accents the music with startling variety, never feeling as though he’s repeating himself. The guitars, however, are the ones truly pushing for the technicality; occasionally falling into the trap of dissonant speed with little purpose but for the most part successful in varying the pace and style, adding swinging rhythms to hard hitting punk-like chords, flirting with bluesy tones and heavy metal powering solos, they demonstrate nothing if not a willing to experiment, leaving only the poor bass struggling to keep the two virtuoso’s tied to a single rhythm whilst making his own mark, and only just succeeding. But sadly this release isn’t without its issues.
One of the main issues regarding technical music is the inherent nature of turning people away, sounding too unrefined and coming across as an array of noise without structure. Whilst this is less of an issue thanks in no small part to the jazz rhythms, it is still a difficult album to assimilate, requiring multiple listens to come to really come to terms with. Furthermore, many of the additional experimental sections come and go with all too much futility, feeling more like a throwaway cheap trick than anything that pushes them further into avant-garde territory; shown no respect and merely used as a means to break up the monotony. Furthermore, even after multiple listens none of the passages have really stuck, and I’m unable to recall a single riff, bass line or drum beat. This is an artist with incredible technical talent, and the drive to excel beyond that. Armed with an array of influences, they may before too long find themselves settling into a style that remains as unique and experimental as shown here whilst becoming more accessible, but they simply aren’t there yet.
Highlights: Invincible Bad Ass, Stag
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