Macha
See It Another Way
Jetset
Must… remain… objective. Have to… write… review… Fuck, can’t do it. Macha have my undying love because they soundly beat the myth of the sophomore slump less than a year after the unveiling of their wondrous debut album. The proof is in the pudding, and the Butterscotch in this case is See It Another Way . All of the exotic world music dabblings are still there, but Macha have turned up the power ten more notches, echoing Mogwai and Sonic Youth. The first three songs, “Riding the Rails,” “Unil Your Temples are Pounding,” and “Man Wants to Be Bird,” are absolute beasts. It’s as if their first album was amped up and force fed speed. The kick drum and bassline interlock on “Nipplegong” alone would reduce me to giddy incomprehension. Oh, I can hear the college radio DJs guffawing over that song title all the way from here. However, it is the last handful of songs which interest me the most, because of the abrupt shift in mood to an all-encompassing melancholy. “Submarine Lover” channels Sonic Youth’s more reflective moments. “Mirror” rips away the world stylings down to the merest downcast skeleton of a song that is the best parts of Luna and Galaxie 500 – whispers, xylophone, late night guitar. The instrumental “Between Stranded Sonars” is pure Velvet Underground with John Cale, and I can almost swear I hear a viola sawing away. They are definitely on a darker tip this time around the reincarnation cycle.
Jetset Records, 67 Vestry St. #5C, New York, NY 10013; http://jetset.sinner.com
