Beta-Lactam Ring
City Calls Revolution is better recorded and the performances far more energetic and memorable than those on last year's He's Crying 'Look',though the band is still mining the same post-progressive rockterritory, all breathless guitar dynamics, virtuosic drumming andhistrionic, shrieking vocals. Opening track "Concrete City Breakdown"unashamedly begins with a sprinkling of spacey Korg synths and T'sheavily phased Fender Jazz bass, before opening out into aHawkwind-meets-Zappa thing, which continues for perhaps longer than itought to, but is never boring. dead k's broken English squawking isgrating until he really starts bellowing and screaming, and then it's aperfect match for the group's tireless stop-start, adrenaline-pumpedmetal meanderings. Luckily, GMFTPO isn't the sort of progressive bandthat pauses for five-minute solos on bass or drums, so things keepmoving at a breakneck clip, which is good. "OMGS" and "Demagog" [sic]are two shorter tracks sandwiched between the album's behemoth sidelongtracks, and serve as excellent showcases for the group's concise,efficient songwriting efforts, which I actually quite prefer to theirmore long-winded tracks. The trio effortlessly changes key and tempo,barreling through endless corridors of seething rock dynamism, T andA's interplay on "Demagog" at times resembling the stunning openingsequence of Yes' "Heart of the Sunrise." (I admit it, I'm a huge fan ofYes. So sue me.) Ending things off on a post-Floydian note of building,churning splendor is the 38 minutes of "A Day in the Planet Orange,"which creates a cyclical architecture of blistering guitar soloing,intense drumming and complex bass acrobatics. My patience did wear abit thin by the time the group geared up for their final ascent intothe stratosphere, but if I had been on just a little bit of kind bud,I'm sure it would all have seemed a lot more exciting. Not that youneed drugs for GMFTPO's hairy psych-prog showstoppers to make animpression, but it doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt at all. - Jonathan Dean
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