Father Divine – Requiem for Intellect 8.0

                Father Divine knows how to overwhelm. The album sprawls, taking up almost all 80 minutes of an entire CD. In case the sheer length of it didn’t let you know what you were getting into, there’s the sound. Had Mr. Bungle continued after their last album “California” it would not be inconceivable that they continued in this vein. Of course, I use that comparison as the highest compliment. 

                “Requiem for Intellect” skronks, thrashes, blows up a couple of times into pure anarchy, and generally does what it wants. Let it. You’ll be surprised where they take you. The horns happen to be a nice touch for me. Horns are over a lot of this album in various ways. A few times I’m reminded of the absolute joy of “The Flying Luttenbachers” or perhaps “Shining” that wonderful Norwegian Jazz/Metal band. Certainly the chaos is there.

                There’s the warning. You’re not going to get your kicks easily with this album. Instead, you’ll have to do some serious listening. As a fan of a band that puts in this amount of effort, I’m quite frankly amazed. Considering all the bands following a more minimal (say accessible) approach, it’s doubly refreshing to hear a maximal approach to sound. Even the track lengths are long. You really need to get into it, this isn’t for passive listening.

                Perhaps that’s what I enjoy most about it. All of it is done in a specific way, their way. While they were making this, they were doing it out of a pure appreciation of the sound. Listening to it, I can be confident in saying they made this for intense focus. It’s a weird album for sure; it gets hard to pinpoint a specific favorite track as they each have so many movements. 

                If you ever wondered what happened to the early 90s New York weirdness, well it has been hiding in New Jersey all these years. Come find them.

Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra – Another Heartbreak 8.4

I guess the name is what happens when there’s too much democracy in a group. You end up with something unruly like that title. No worries though, the music is definitely pretty excellent.

DFA did everyone a favor by reissuing this gem from the far-overlooked Peter Gordon. He worked with people as renowned as Laurie Anderson and Rhys Chatham. Parts of the late 70s/early 80s burst through each piece, especially the saxophone playing which reminds me of Pere Ubu for some reason. 

The first track is a much easier one to wrap your mind around. Even though it is a medley of various bits and pieces (going from lounge to funk to dance) it works as a whole. A few things have been touched up, adding a synthesizer is pretty much expected for any DFA release. Listening to this, and the orchestral underpinnings of what is basically a dance track, I’m pretty glad that DFA gives credit where credit is due for all those bands that have influenced them.

“That Hat” is much stranger. Never before released which is a same. This one has a much harsher vibe to it, kind of like a “No Wave” jam session going on. Of course having Arto Lindsay contributing to the track tends to do that. Out of almost nowhere, from all these random shouts and skronk, comes a reassuring voice about that hat. Worth exploring.

Experimental Dental School – Hideous Dance Attack 6.4

Sure, these guys are chaotic. I think after the first 5 seconds it is pretty hard to ignore that. Plus, some of their songs can be pretty catchy, getting stuck in your mind for a while. But even as they open for Deerhoof, they sort of lack the same level of charm and polish.

My problem with the album is for every experiment that works in the scatter shot approach (Kkkfc Serves Sparkily Squirl Meat) that something completely pointless without any merit (Some 4). The vocalist also sounds like they are trying a bit too hard to be like Mike Patton. Not that such ambition is bad, but if you fail, it kind of leaves a bad taste in the listener’s mouth.

Honestly, I’m not sure why there are so many ambient pieces to the music, especially in the latter half. Some bands are able to successfully integrate fast and slow, chaos and ambient, but these guys aren’t one of those bands. If you need a quick fix of skronk, these guys are alright. But otherwise this is just a “meh” experience.