Black Mold

Does confessing a belief that the instrumental sections of Chad VanGaalen's debut, Infiniheart, weakened the album worry you? Be brave, for in considering this 19-track, purely instrumental album by Mr. V. I socked this bias away. As with his song constructions, CVG is an ADD sort, and the only connective tissue that binds here is the continual return to the bending of synthesizers to make with the squishies. This comes after an austere cello fake-out in the intro to "Metal Spider Webs" and between the bars of ukulele expansion in "Uke Puke." Though most of these pieces could be called "miniatures," they pack a lot into their brief lives, like "Tetra Pack Heads," which sounds like three Caribou tracks on a Pixie Stix bender. The title track meanders halfway through a digital steel drum and stomach duel before the acoustic guitar neatly turns it into a song. VanGaalen's restlessness is half charm and half frustration but in this case, charm is the larger of the halves.