Cut Iowa Network
Projector Gunship Held {Ø}

Our album of the week (27th February 2009)

...according to our Brian on 26 February 2009.

Now for a treat...who loved that Minus Pilots LP? Well...the label Panic Arrest have their second experimental odyssey available through us. It's by Cut Iowa Network and this double 180gm treat has been christened 'Projector Gunship Held'. Beginning its climb with gracefully melancholic bowed strings and cheeky smatterings of free percussion, taking in some juddering electronic pulses and spellbinding atmospherics, this is a fine exercise in drama & intention. Then the drum kit kicks into action, slowly rolling syncopated beats and a lulling Tortoise style bassline, all imbued with this widescreen aura of space & time. The second track takes the hypnotic krautrock flavour further, a sharp, funky beat and strange one-note chimes & echo-ey whirrs, pulsing away, feeding your head, whilst the bass frequencies hover & lurk around like ominous waves of subconscious sound. Truly brilliant stuff. Track 3 is like a continuation of the theme into slightly harder, wilder pastures, a little bit more improvised & slightly psychedelic. The second disc opens with 'Super Futures Axis Neo Tokyo', Beginning with drifting atmospherics & looped sound, it builds into another tight, percussive workout, definetely in debt to old masters Can but sounding incredibly taut & minty fresh. There is something very warm yet clinically executed about this record, glowing with an organic feel yet very precise and metronomic. As is usual with my reviews, i'll leave the final track to your perusal! I've been bored silly with post rock of late but this opus combines the best of mid-late 90's Chicago instrumental rock with exciting & modern drone/experimental textures whilst flexing its Herculean Krautrock backbone. All finely mastered by Harris Newman, a member of that Godspeed clan! Bloody marvellous, in deluxe packaging. This is without a doubt shaping up to be a very special label!