Ether

Named after purported incidents of indiscretion by Mormon missionaries, this Salt Lake City group employs a muscular approach in reaching its instrumental rock goals. With two drummers, they build up enough torque to tow several smaller bands out of snowdrifts, but not without some attention to detail in their atmospherics as well. As heavy as, but more repetitive and unwavering, than bands like Don Caballero or Dazzling Killmen, Ether seems to delight in finding the soft spot of a riff and then ripping out its guts. With titles derived from map co-ordinates, each piece also comes equipped with its own climatic characteristics: squalls of high pitched tones, fogs of bass thrum, quiet Sargasso moments at sea when all is almost silent - only to catch an unexpected wave churned by deliberate tom work of increasing speed. Music for Air Raids is likely to please fans of the aforementioned bands as well as fans of math rock, post rock, rock rock and rock polishing kits.