by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Vishnu Basement’s latest release is only three tracks long but Bulb is most definitely a full length due to album opener “The Mythic Rot” and it’s nearly 20 minute running time. Yep, strap yourselves in, this is one of those releases. Blending elements of free jazz, math pop, and prog rock, the expanded running time of the track is anything but wasted. The spastic composition has A LOT to offer, and the ground covered throughout the “The Mythic Rot” shows more variations than many bands offer over the course of several albums. There’s lush passages of ambient layers that create a dream-like lull, there’s pounding and tangled math punk in the vein of Tera Melos, and there’s a massive wall of pure experimental noise that leads into the jazziest of space rock. It’s all over the map and yet the quartet manage to warp one idea into the next with cohesion. The textures explored throughout the EP are the stuff of “mind expansion” at it’s most cerebral… you haven’t heard an attack on texture quiet like this. The band show restraint too… until they don’t. Loose structures ooze into shredded chaos and just when you start to feel overwhelmed they pull back into smoother (though still complex) prog. It’s a wild time to say the least.
The back half of the record keeps the virtuosity at peak level, skittering back and forth among prog and math pop structures with a jazzy fluidity on “Musp,” a gentle song, with an elastic rhythm and gorgeous arrangement. Drummer Sam Judkis steals the show, shifting between time signatures with massive polyrhythmic soft handed bursts as the guitars bubble up around him. If you came for the “chops” then “chops” you shall get. “Back To Zero” rounds out the record, a rollercoaster ride of prog excess and post-hardcore duty so jagged you might feel a bit dizzy after listening. Vishnu Basement are pushing the boundaries of technicality to new levels with little concern for conventional accessibility, interspersing destructive force with distorted melodies, wandering jazz improvisation, and the occasional gasp of calm meditative psych pop. The quartet are never in the same headspace for too long though, so keep up… or get swallowed whole.
Vishnu Basement's Bulb is out May 13th via Sad Cactus Records. Pre-order HERE. Check out the band on tour in May and June. For more info, check out the band on Facebook.
Tour Dates:
May 13 -- Providence, RI
May 14 -- Hadley, MA
May 15 -- Poughkeepsie, NY
May 16 -- Baltimore, MD
May 17 -- Philadelphia, PA
May 18 -- Harrisonburg, VA
May 19 -- Asheville, NC
May 20 -- Roanoke, VA
May 21 -- Knoxville, TN
May 23 -- Nashville, TN
May 24 -- Memphis, TN
May 25 -- St. Louis, MO
May 26 -- Kansas City, MO
May 28 -- Minneapolis, MN
May 29 -- Chicago, IL
May 31 -- Chicago, IL
June 1 -- Evansville, IN
June 2 -- Fort Wayne, IN
June 3 -- Cincinnati, OH
June 4 -- Bloomington, IN
June 5 -- Yellow Springs, OH
June 6 -- Pittsburgh, PA
June 7 -- Syracuse, NY
June 8 -- Utica, NY
June 9 -- Manchester, NH
June 10 -- Cambridge, MA
June 11 -- Allston, MA
June 15 -- Brooklyn, NY