90 Day Men


(Copyright © 2004 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )

(It (Is) It) Critical Band (2000), 6.5/10
To Everybody (2002), 6/10
Panda Park (2004), 6/10
Lichens: The Psychic Nature Of Being (2005), 6.5/10
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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

90 Day Men were originally a post-rock band from St Louis (Missouri) that released records such as the single If You Can Bake a Cake You Can Build a Bomb (Actionboy, 1997), the EP 1975-1977-1998 (Temporary Residence, 1998), and the single She's a Salt Shaker/ Activate the Borders.

Relocating to Chicago in 1999, they added keyboardist Andy Lansangan and recorded their first full-length, (It (Is) It) Critical Band (2000). The piano (a rather lugubrious and sorrowful voice) now dominated their music, which carved a niche between Sonic Youth's noise-rock, Jesus Lizard's convoluted hardcore, Gastr Del Sol's loose soundscapes and the new wave of the late 1970s. Brian Case sounds like a less possessed David Yow (Jesus Lizard), and the instrumental passages sustain his performance with a subtle range of polyphony.

To Everybody (Southern, 2002) and the EP Too Late Or Too Dead (2003) showed improved technical skills, and place the keyboards even more openly to the forefront of the music. The overall effect was often akin to Canterbury's progressive-rock.

Panda Park (2004) is sometimes too slick and predictable, as if the band was trying to reach for a broader audience or was more consciously trying to imitate past bands, but moments such as Even Time Ghosts are enough to redeem the entire work. And no two songs are alike, which is, by itself, an achievement.

90 Day Men's Afro-American bassist Robert Lowe is also active as Lichens. The project's debut album, The Psychic Nature Of Being (Kranky, 2005), contains three live improvisations for voice, guitars and electronics. The eleven-minute invocation of Kirilian Auras borders on Tibetan mantras and ghostly howls, barely accompanied by zen-like guitar tones. The vocals sound even more supernatural in Shore Line Scoring, underpinned by a denser drone of instrumental noise, as if swept by a dark and unrelenting wind.
The 20-minute You Are Excrement If You Can Turn Yourself Into Gold is a mixed blessing. It builds up slowly from a harsh tone into a suspenseful guitar raga. At 9'30" the music decays into a static frequency. Then it takes five minutes for the guitar to recover and finally abort the background drone. A shimmering psychedelic lattice of guitar and bells rules the last part. While each part of the piece has its appeal, the various parts are not tied together in a smooth way. It definitely does not live up to the expectations created by the first two (shorter) tracks.

The esoteric concept White/ Lichens (Holy Mountain, 2007) was a collaboration between Rob Lowe (Lichens) and Matt Clark and Jeremy Lemos of Chicago's guitar duo White/Light Robert Lowe also released the all-electronic Fazo IV - La Kvalito de Speguloj (Rainbow Body, 2009).

(Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi | Terms of use )
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