October Bargain Days - Bomis Prendin

Loud, raucous, intense, and playfully abrasive.

Imagine taking the East Coast indie pop scene of the Eighties and screwing with its head until the output got all manic and ornery...then forcefeed it through a focusing lens until the music became glisteny but still ominous-in-a-friendly-way.

The result is an exhilarating and often exhausting journey through different sonic dimensions, each new exposure relentlessly delivering (mostly instrumental) tuneage that entertainingly stands the listener's hair on end.

Guitars snarl and squeal, conjuring tortured rock stars dumped in a snakepit. Savage percussion generates a resolute barrier that constricts until the listeners find themselves trapped in that same pit; this plight is far from a punishment, though. A bevy of keyboards act like a fireworks display, exploding overhead and raining delight into the abyss. Rumbling basslines serve to vibrate the walls of the pit, threatening to trap the audience in a lavish cave-in. Periodic vocals embellish this tuneage with sardonic sentiments.

The music itself refuses to remain in any solid genre, leaping from art noise to electric funk to haunting progrock. Its unpredictable nature is allowed considerable range to explore bizarre sonic configurations.

While the mode often changes, this music retains a determined intensity. Brutally harsh pop tunes and edgy instrumentals coexist with a vengeance that is indefatigable. Searing guitar riffs dazzle while electronics swarm like hungry locusts, devouring everything in their path. Few bands dare to combine Stockhausen with Neil Young, and even fewer manage to pull it off with such sultry charm and gritty charisma.

Bomis Prendin is: Bomis Prendin (on drums, keys, vocals), Corvus Crorson (on guitar brut, vocals), Miles Anderson (on guitar sublime), Candee (on skeleton keys, voice samples), and Hungry "Isaac" Hidden (on bass, vocals).

-- compiled from reviews written by Matt Howarth (http://www.soniccuriosity.com)


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