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The Fire Show
The Fire Show
Almost immediately, you sense there's something very different going on here. As the lead-off "F. Pilate" builds upon an urgency of doomy confession, a squall of noisey interference encircles the verses, completely obliterating the tune. But not before a cold edit brings you back to vocalist M. Resplendent's twitchy, tension-filled yearnings, aided by a classical string section and a post-rock caterwaul guitar solo- a bonifide Robert Quine-like technique applied here by fretman Olias Nil. The rest of the songs on this Chicago trio's debut are equally angular in approach. Passionate, discordant, taking the hard road around, coupled with a string section that often softens the sonic wallop, this disc crosses between beauty and the bizarre as if The Fall locked horns with Rachel's. In dissolving the rhythmic force, deadening the Bo Diddley beat in their cover of "Who Do You Love?," The Fire Show then reckon with Diddley's lyrics in a most unnatural way. While I didn't like this at first, I soon found it to be bewitching and intense like those early Birthday Party albums, where the loudest sound became my skin crawling. Tantalizing. -virginia reed (Perishable, P.O. Box 57-8804, Chicago, IL 60657-8804)
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