Big Sir – Und Die Scheisse Ändert Sich Immer. 2006. D:8. Album translates to “And the Sh*t Always Changes”. Yep – pretty much! Label categorizes band as indie/electronic/rock and that’s exactly what we have here. Big Sir is the bassist from The Mars Volta teamed up with vocaliste Lisa Papineau, solo artist and contributor to pop electronica acts like Air and M83. Big Sir present 14 carefully crafted songs that have that self-conscious “WE’RE not self-indulgent prog” sound that gives it instant street cred with the Starbucks barista crowd. Steady beats, cool grooves, OK melodies, a handful of retro instruments (oooh – is that a mellotron? Heyyy – a free jazz sax interlude! How coooool daddy-o….). It’s Music For Bachelor Pads. Best paired with Stereolab while sipping a Barefoot Pinot Grigio. Ciao baby.

Crime in Choir – Trumpery Metier. 2006. D: 11. On the same label as above (Gold Standard Labs). This is their 3rd album and the grades on the first 2 are mediocre. Wow – I like this one! I guess this is what I expect out of a modern progressive group. It’s all instrumental but accessible – not esoteric in that European way that seems to turn off more mainstream listeners. But not so vapid as to turn off more grizzled veterans like myself. Complex and mathy, nice mix of modern and vintage instrumentation including keys and reeds. Another band who’s heritage can be traced to the At The Drive In family tree (Mars Volta, Sparta). They only sent me a burn – so now I need to buy the damn thing… then I’ll give it a review proper on Gnosis.

Pure Reason Revolution – The Dark Third. 2006. D: 10. The cynic in me says “So I guess this is what passes for progressive rock these days…”. But they do things with harmony that isn’t your daily normal routine. I think they can still be a bit too mainstream for what I’d like to hear on a regular basis. But I could see some of these melodies winning me over and this rising high. Music takes the Pink Floyd “Animals” era to the modern day and adds some muscle and 2006 production quality.

The Mars Volta – Amputechture.  2006. D: 10. Is there a freakier non metal group on a major right now? “Frances the Mute” seemed a bit of a mess to me, and this one isn’t really that much cleaner. I still think they have too much to say – and now they’ve gone Spanish on some tracks.  Rodriguez seems to have an ego the size of Texas… and I’m sure he’s got muchos huevos for the chiquitas. He’ll never be Robert Plant and you know that’s exactly what he wants… anyway, this rocks like a mother and is pretty doggone wiggy too.Glad this stuff exists in the bins of mall record stores.