Dysrhythmia/Rothko (split ep)-Fractures

2007
Acerbic Noise Development Inc.

This is a split album consisting of all instrumentals with Dysrythmia contributing one 14 minute long track and Rothko providing two tracks that are over 12 minutes combined. New York based Dysrythmia starts it off with "Earthquake" which a rather abstract combination of progressive metal, avant-garde and just some instrumental wizardry. The track goes from minimal sounds to complete musical mayhem with notes flying all over the place and then back and forth again. At times they remind me of a less organized Dream Theater. This song was originally done in 2000, but this is a re-working of it. Rothko's first track is "Tell your story to the winds" and it's easily the stronger of their two offerings. They have no guitarist, but instead have two bass players to go along with their drummer and keyboard player. So they rely a bit more on sounds and tones rather a traditional song structure. The song is largely made up of very singular notes and beats with lots of echoes and gaps between them. Yet they manage to do enough to make you wonder what's coming next. I think that they succeed by causing large shifts with only slight changes in the music. I won't pretend for a second that I think this is easily accomplished, but they do it several times. The second song "Torch" honestly fails to really establish any presence or real purpose. There are a few moments where it begins to work, but just doesn't ever quite do enough and my interest was fading rather quickly. Still the first two tracks did more than enough to justify this as being a worthwhile album. It's a given that this is the kind of music that where you really need to limit outside distractions in order to really hear and enjoy all that's taking place here.