Qua "Forgetabout" / "Painting Monsters On Clouds"

Qua's promo one-sheet claims that the music on these two albums is "not easily categorized," they "[draw] on elements of world music, folk, and rock with a seamless grace." It compares Qua to "Mouse On Mars...Ennio Morricone , and... Architecture In Helsinki." That is just publicity pap. Truth be told, Qua sounds like Tortoise with a little of The Dylan Group thrown in. If those bands are to be called post-rock, then Qua is the very definition of post-laptop. Mixing strictly synthesized sounds with unarguably live instrumentation, Qua leans more to the organic, acoustic sounds on Forgetabout, and more on the laptop on Painting Monsters On Cloud (both releases, of which, were originally released on Surgery Records in 2002 and 2004 respectively).

Similar in spirit to the territory staked out by Ultramarine on New Kingdoms, Qua is at turns pastoral, such as on Painting Monsters' "Watercolour." At others angular, "HappyDomestika ," never really excelling at either but not altogether failing. There is something to the music, something compelling beyond reason, hitting you in the heart more than in the head. Not that this is simple music, it isn't. If you're one to meticulously map out the percussion patters in your head or try to visualize what the Logic session would look like while listening to music, this will keep you occupied for a bit, to be sure. But the real impact is beyond the critical, it is emotional, counter-intuitively so.

This sounds like I'm waffling, and I admit it. Yes, parts of both records are beautiful, and parts are tedious. Each positive has a negative, and this equilibrium is consistent across both albums --which makes these hard to recommend. But I like to think ofQua's material like this: if you accept, as some have, that the film The Core is the most completely mediocre film ever made, then you can compare any other film as being either better or worse than it. The Core is neither good nor bad, it merely exists as the middle ground. Qua isn't great but isn't terrible either. Both albums have something to recommend as much as they have something to not recommend. This shouldn't be read as being negative, because it isn't, but it isn't positive either. I'm on the fence, Qua is too.

Liz Larin "Wake Up, Start Dreaming"

Detroit's rock goddess has won an eye-popping 15 Detroit Music Awards through her long and varied career, and hearing her latest its easy to understand why. Simply, Liz rocks. Cliche, perhaps, but listen to her challenge the spirit of Janis Joplin on "Taste of Fate" -- growling hasn't sounded this sexy in decades. And speaking of sexy, check out the purring come-ons in "We Are Not Strangers Anymore." Liz's domination fantasies play out over a pulsing electro-bass and a pounding dance-floor beat.

But back on point, Larin knows how to get righteous and tear shit up! "Frequency" starts as a nice bar band rocker, with an excellent vocal melody. Two minutes in though, Larin and band rip into this beautiful bridge that Pete Townshend wishes he could write. Fucking awesome.

Larin can bring it down as well. "Alive (Conversation With An Angel)" is a fantastic chill-out track, a slowly simmering gravy, under down-to-earth philosophical lyrics. Her cover of Zeppelin's "Going To California" finds the gentle grooves that Page & Co.'s delivery was lacking.

Wake Up, Start Dreaming richly deserves the accolades heaped upon it. Articles currently circulating indicate that Larin is reaching out of the rock milieu into electronics and "Americana." With this album she's laid a solid foundation towards those endeavors.

Lurker of Chalice

Leviathan's mastermind, Wrest, appears solo here under the somewhat non-sensical moniker Lurker of Chalice. Sounding at times gothic, at others grindcore, Lurker pushes the boundaries of black metal, even incorporating (heresy!) acoustic guitars and symphonic interludes. An overall oppressive mood seems to be more the order of the day than orthodox black metal. "Spectre as Valkerie Is" provides the best example with the chugging riffs and growling vocals giving way to a hypnotic, ambient-psychedelic trance-inducing groove (indeed!) that delights as much as it surprises. As does the My Bloody Valentine-meets-Burzum guitar drone of "Paramnesia," which fades into a moaning male choir, then a hip-hop beat, over which spirits from hell wail and wail and wail. The album as a whole sounds more like his sometime"drone-aborators" Sunn 0))) than his more well-known (and blacker) alter-ego. That Wrest is able to pull off the change from fast to slow, noise to silence, all by his lonesome makes the results all the more amazing. Lurker of Chalice is going to scare a good percentage of unsuspecting listeners and possibly offend a few genre purists, but this album holds buried secrets that are worth unearthing with repeated listenings, preferably on headphones.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - PCP Torpedo / ANbRX

PCP Torpedo clocks in at six-and-a-half minutes, though it seems twice as long. Agoraphobic Nosebleed are known for their pummeling blastbeat grindcore, and nowhere in their extensive back catalog is it better illustrated than here. Over before you know it, the ten tracks blur by in a chaos of impossibly fast drums and a simply oppressive wall of guitars, with vocals buried deep underneath, and barely understandable. The lyrics sheet, though thankfully provided, is of little help. Even with visual prompting, the vocals are indiscernible. Not that it matters, as the emphasis is on the grinding guitars and not the lyrics. On the second disc, ANbRX, some of the usual remix suspects appear, such as James Plotkin, Justin Broadrick, and Merzbow, all turning in typically excellent, if not necessarily remarkable mixes. Surprises abound, though, as opener Vidna Obmana's remix amazes with a dark ambient/dub take on the source material. The Drokz & Tails take also stands out, taming down the guitars in favor of a dancefloor-friendly hardcore 2-step beat. Together, the two discs are an excellent statement of purpose going forward for ANb, and an excellent door-opener for both the band and the genre.

The Dolls

Bringing together Craig Armstrong's jazzy piano, Vladislav Delay's dub bass-scapes and Antye Greie's abstruse lyrical musings seems like such an inspired idea that it is surprising it hasn't happened earlier. With the AGF/Delay collaboration Explode Baby as the launching point, Delay and Greie create a constantly shifting percussive landscape for Armstrong to majestify. Which he does. His fluid work here is on par with the best of his solo works. And Delay is also at the top of his game, finding new ideas in shorter songs (topping out here at no longer than six-and-a-half minutes), succeeding where an earlier solo album of shorter pieces, Demo(n) Tracks, failed. But it is Greie, who finally, actually sings in her charming, slightly accented English, who steals the show. Leaving behind the glitched-out cut-up vocal style she unfortunately pioneered on Head Slash Bauch, she reveals herself as a stylistically interesting singer, finding eroticism in the breathy readings of her mundane lyrics. The trio play off (so to speak) each other so well that this album should not just be a one-off. Highly recommended.