Grooms
Rejoicer
Death By Audio
Remember those bright college days when your choice in music came more from annoying the school administration and your mother, and not so much from the actual joy of listening? That might be the role of Grooms. Their debut album Rejoicer mixes dissonant drums, mutlirhythmic guitar, and a wall of noise that might be a poorly tuned collection of instruments, an experimental synthesizer with a virus, or digital multitracking run amok. Songs often start out innocently enough; “Ghost Cat” might be a late night love song, but gradually builds to a cacophony of noise that recalls a bad late night trip. Like ultrahip jazz, the point here is to make the listener think hard, or scare them away. While the individual notes are fine, the collective effect is less than impressive. But if some tattooed, blue-haired barista plays this in a coffee shop, you’ll know what they’re trying to do, and smile knowingly.
