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The eponymous fourth album from this Minneapolis’ trio offers us a further glimpse into their post-hardcore world, and they’re sounding more assured and spasmodic than ever. The twelve tracks here combine progressive rock and hardcore to good effect, with the result representing how Rush may have sounded had they formed thirty years later and been weaned on a diet of Fugazi and Q and Not U.
The band manage to produce a kind of sonic-patchwork, with fractured and constantly evolving musical pieces of no fixed structure or tempo keeping the listener interested and bemused throughout. The way Tom Berg’s and Conrad Mach’s bass and guitar lines intermingle and entwine is a joy, with the pair creating polyrhythmic layers beneath which Ben Johnston’s solid and workmanlike drumming lays the perfect foundation. Indeed, it’s the drums that hold the music together and prevent it from ever sounding too over indulgent. Mach’s vocal style, visceral but controlled, also provides an edge that sets the sound apart from mere prog-rock muso show-boating and the way the voice is left low in the mix is a clever ploy that gives the impression that the album was recorded live.
There is much here to please fans of both punk and prog but for the best examples of what Self-evident are capable of, look no further than the pounding urgency of ‘Fraid’ and the excellent ‘World as a Verb’, with it’s abrasive and jarring guitar recalling Killing Joke at their most intimidating. This is a fine album and one that you will return to again & again, if only to figure out what makes this band tick.
RICHARD STOKOE
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