Cartel Carnage - Incorporated (2012)

**You walk into a bar**

Classic metal is having an arm wrestling contest in the corner with Progressive rock....typical.

Front and center grabbing drinks of course is ol' drinking buddies J. Zorn and Mike P.

I did notice upon entering as well the atypical choice of music the DJ was playing...some sort of free jazz.

Interesting stuff here at the "Cartel Carnage"

Incorporated

Hey! Tonal

Comprised of members from a handful of current and past math rock groups (maps and atlases, zzzz's, storm and stress, sweep the leg johnny)  Hey! tonal marks a less organic take on the genre, employing carefully programmed drums and samples. It is a bit free-jazzy using horns and structure wise as well. Really strong for members whose groups sound nothing like this.

Hey! Tonal

Zu - Carboniferous

This is an amazing amalgamation of so many genres. Hailing from Rome, Italy there is no doubt in my mind that whatever you could call this....Zu is the greatest at it. To effectively compile every style that is twisted by this trio you would have to include.

Jazz
Free-Jazz
Rock
Metal
No-Wave
Math
Punk
Noise
Experimental

phew...

It should be noted that this is the groups 14th release and shows with its laser focus. Fans of any of the above mentioned flim-flam please check it. 

Carboniferous

Exivious

Fusion Metal (weather channel metal)

Highly Tech. yet also very chilled and flowing, the wonderful fusion metal band Exivious is made up of members of the also amazing Cynic. Complex song structures and instrumentation abounds. The balance of Jazz and Metal is actually surprisingly equal. While having heard this you'd have thought they always belonged together. Extremely amazing.

Exivious   

Tera Melos

Math Rock

Or as Nick Reinhart (guitarist) describes it as "bands that like Fugazi". I honestly could never hope to say enough about this group. They remain a constant favorite of mine not because of chops, emotion or anything like that but because of their evolution as a group over time. Most Math groups are content to rest on notions that we all know and love that have been paved through by father Don Cab. Not so at all with Tera Melos.
    With four major releases under their belt it isn't hard to see why they are all so loved. Spazzy Jazz core with ambient bits thrown in with electronic portions. Yet at the end of the day this band can crush you with guitars. I saw these gents play last year and actually got to spend a long time speaking with them as they were staying at a friends. What I gleaned from all three of them was a restless nature of moving on to the next best thing. When it comes to art in music this is the key to the golden city for me.

Self-titled - First full length. A very tight outing with memorable riffs. All 4 original members were a part of this release. The most "conventional" of all their albums but certainly turned heads when it dropped.

Drugs to the Dear Youth EP- Minus guitartist Jeff Worms. This is a wholly different group. Where riffs were titanic they are now manic and abrasive. Space is given to the songs yet the harder parts are that much harder. Vince Rogers drumming has become more free jazz in nature and all the better for it. EXCELLENT

Complex Full of Phantoms - Another EP this time split with another math group "By the End of Tonight" This is a compounding of both previous releases together into a glorious cohesive mess. Also vocals make their shy appearance. This is a stand out among their releases and many feel their strongest. Everyone is firing on all cylinders.

Patagonian Rats Minus Vince Rogers. For me (and many) this was a large blow for the group. Nick had been expressing his love of pop music around this time and it seems to me this was his stab at using these elements. Some good songs but just not as strong as we are used to.

Laddio Bolocko - The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko

    Close in sound to groups such as "This Heat" Laddio Bolocko have a more rock forward approach to song structure...at times while in the same instant owing much to past free-jazz heroes. Its truly hard to say from song to song what face these guys put on but they do it all well. This is experimental noise rock if you had to peg it to one area in particular but they do shine in slower outings and drone as well. Math elements poke their head from time to time but mostly in the drumming. It makes sense seeing as Blake Flemming was from Dazzling Killmen (an early math-rock band) he even spent time in Mars Volta.
    This group in my opinion has had a large impact on the experimental rock of our current day. With members from influential bands and also went on from this to form other amazing groups.  Members went on to play in Psychic Paramount and Electric Turn to Me.
     Highly recommended to anyone that claims to enjoy left field rock music.While they are gone I would say after enjoying their collected works here you turn to Psychic Paramount as they remain close to the same style and are an excellent band in their own right. Enjoy.


The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko