Released late in 2021, San Francisco indie-prog experimental quartet’s 18th studio LP is a frenetic, pace-changing, daredevil record, challenging social and political norms, laced with interwoven and blistering guitar, bass, and drums alongside Satomi Matsuzaki’s distinctive vocals. Standouts include Be Unbarred, O Ye Gates of Hell, Department of Corrections, Plant Thief, the arpeggio-rich and joyously uplifting Scarcity Is Manufactured, and Ancient Mysteries Described. There’s a moral, as well as musical thrust here too. “In the United States now, to be a moral person means to be a criminal, whether it has to do with a general strike or forming a union or Black Lives Matter protests,” clarifies Saunier of the album’s countercultural embrace of liberation. “If you follow the rules, you’re guilty. That’s the spirit we were trying to express: an angelic prison bust, a glamorous prison bust.” The album brims with energy, capturing their live prowess, and as ever with Greg Saunier’s drumming the guitar and bass work of John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez, it’s ingenious, infinitely inventive, restless and uplifting. Out on Joyful Noise Recordings.
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