Kinski

This Seattle-based instrumental rock quartet creates suites to rival both Godspeed!'s orchestral beauty and Mogwai's noisy bombast. Yet neither comparison is fully apt; Kinski are more aggressive and less concerned with intricate beauty than Godspeed!, and more tuneful than the post-melody Mogwai. On their third release, calm, cool, and collected guitar-bass-drums harmonies crescendo into fever pitches of heated feedback and climactic finales of explosive, melodious noise. They're Hitchcockian masters of suspense build-up, and an almost animalistic release of tension pounces on you without realisation. Huge variations in dynamics are utilized during this rush - at times abruptly, at times slowly hypnotic, but never just for the sake of showcasing volume for volume's sake. There are moments when the soft, whispering cymbals and meandering, loping guitar loops drone on, but the tunefulness impressively makes these seemingly amorphous sounds stand out as unique and memorable. It's definitely not all a cacophony; Airs Above... has an almost poppy tunefulness that attaches like glue, but it's a stickiness that oozes into you without you noticing rather than assaulting like glob of gum thrown in your hair. Jazz roots come through in moments of free form and syncopated rhythm, as do the influences of My Bloody Valentine and Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth when feedback white noise is delicately manipulated (bassist Lucy Atkinson even sounds eerily Kim-like on "Rhode Island Freakout"). Glorious noise.