East West Blast Test

The terrible twosome of uber-drummer supreme Dave Witte (Burnt by the Sun, Human Remains, Melt-Banana, Discordance Axis, etc.) and Chris Dodge (Spazz) return with their second "from coast to coast” collaboration, this time on the always eclectic home of the bizarre, weird and always ahead of the curve, Ipecac. Constructed by trading tapes and ideas (Witte lives on the East coast, Dodge the West), EWBT’s self-titled debut album showed incredible skill but, as was its nature, featured a lot of unfinished but excellent ideas and unfulfilled musical rough drafts. Popular Music for Unpopular People continues the coast to coast construction ethos but in every way sounds more evolved, experimental (world music rears its head, lounge plays it cool and the metal comes and goes as notions get shredded), cohesive (if anything this weird and boundary-pushing can be considered "cohesive”) and fleshed out. Fans of Spazz or any of Witte’s metal bands (and even the first record) may be taken aback but Popular’s expanded palette, as it ups the envelope pushing and musical genre-fuckery — making Ipecac the "sensible” home, as fans of Patton, the Melvins and the avant garde will "understand” —shows these two musicians surpassing all expectations and creating without restrictions. It’s true, absence does make the heart grown fonder, or, you know, the music weirder, whatever.