by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
For the past eighteen years, Microwaves have been doing their part to make Pittsburgh’s music scene exponentially louder, and their brand of tangled noise rock only seems to be getting better. Whether you’ve been listening all this time or you’re new to the trio, it’s a good time to take notice as they get ready to follow up last year’s Couch Slut split with Via Weightlessness at their new label home of Justin Pearson’s Three One G Records (Qui, Doomsday Student, Hot Nerds). The band have already shared singles “Love Catheter” and the album’s title-track, two abrasive songs that eschew restraint in favor of pummeling polyrhythms and manic stabs of piercing guitar noise.
The record’s latest single “To Activate” is parts noise rock, parts convulsive math rock, and parts sci-fi prog, a beast from another dimension skittering on ground that crumbles beneath it. The rhythm slams itself directly into a wall from the very start, bleeding synth and twisted guitar lines all oozing around the splattered beats as warnings of “disintegration” are shouted through the carnage and dense heaps of jittery melodies. It’s a landslide into the depths, and it’s pretty damn exciting.
Microwaves’ Via Weightlessness is out September 28th via Three One G Records.