Dysrhythmia: Psychic Maps

Psychic Maps opens with 'Fistful of Popular Delusions', a furiously chaotic instrumental that blunders through your ears like a very angry porcupine with no regard for it's own personal safety… or anyone else's. Frenzied guitar lines run rampant, with thunderous drumming and throbbing bass marauding around like the rhythm section from a deranged avant-garde orchestra. Those who know anything of Dysrhythmia will know that this is pretty much the norm for the 3 piece, but that doesn't do anything to detract from the sheer energy of this it.

The pace hardly lets up after that. The band retain a powerful vibrancy throughout, only occasionally slowing to add some dynamic into proceedings. Changing pace with dramatic effect, they almost always manage to serve up the unexpected without it sounding deliberately obtuse. Although entirely instrumental, and all retaining the alarmingly spiky and aggressive sound of the band, the pieces do express enormous individuality and character.

It certainly won't appeal to everyone. The band's unrelenting aggression lends the album an industrial quality, at times almost sound machinistic. This does result in the warmth of the more jazz-oriented moments being leached out by the pure technicality in the music. But this is a minor complaint, the album taking enough humanity from its liveliness to keep the listener onside. The bottom line is that this is a very strong effort. If you'd ever wondered what Rush would sound like if they were in fact all supercharged robots, this is probably the closest you'll ever get to finding out.

Track Listing
1. Festival of Popular Delusions
2. Triangular Stare
3. Reactionary
4. Room of Vertigo
5. Iron Cathedral
6. Lifted By Skin

Added: February 12th 2010
Reviewer: Richard Wheelhouse
Score:
Related Link: Band's MySpace page
Hits: 2917
Language: english

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