Zach Hill - Face Tat
I found this record challenging in a good way. It pushed my mind to places I didn't think it wanted to go, but in the end pretty cool places. Trollheart is right that it bears the hallmark of a drummer - repeating loops with constant slight variations. I notice the same thing listening to fusion albums led by drummers like Trilok Gurtu. For me this wasn't a negative though. Melodies tended to be simple, sometimes nursery rhyme-like, which provided a solid scaffold for very complex use of texture. While I don't always dig his use of distortion on some tracks, On the whole I thought this album was outstanding; I definitely prefer this to both Death Grips and Hella (neither of which left the same impression on me). My only gripe is that I felt he'd said what he wanted to say before the end of the album - pruning it down to 10 tracks would have made the album as a whole more of a story-like cohesive unit.
8/10
|