posted 10/14/2008 (Tue) @ 08:00 am
>>> Music Reviews
Bolt - Movement and Detail (2005)
Instrumental / Progressive Math Rock / Indie
A monkeywrench to Neanderthal rock
- The Devil’s Paintbrush
- Stryker
- Anaphase
- Variables
- Invasion
- Skydiving With A Life Preserver
- Vendetta
- Knocking On 9
- Vanilla
- Solar
- Kick
The musical Barbies of the world will forever maintain that “math is hard.” The math-rockers out there—most of whom look nothing like Ken, nor own a car—just get hard at the mention of mathematics and music. The two are, and have been, of course, inextricably entangled.
A lot of what gets cranked on car stereos has more in common with elementary school counting games than algebra. And “math rock” in the traditional sense is something which only Stephen Hawking could repeatedly beep “yes, oh yes” to: overly slow, needlessly complicated, impenetrable density, with hardly a trace of rock edge to be found. As always, the coveted middle ground is where you want to be: rocking out, but smart; smart, but rocking out. Enter Bolt.
Bolt’s musicianship is simply masterful. The smeary, yet crystalline lick repeated throughout “The Devil’s Paintbrush” is so precise, it manages to make a guitar sound like a synth patch. Bolt are capable of creeping up slow (”The Devil’s Paintbrush”), making the most of a simple progression (”Skydiving With a Life Preserver”), or going medium-fast and technical (the cheesily-named “Stryker”). The technical side is there, just crammed to fit inside expectations—about four minutes or so in length, on average—with the end result being that Bolt take only as much time as necessary to develop their ideas.
“Invasion” is perhaps the goofiest piece on Movement and Detail. Loaded down with a faux-Middle Eastern lick and progression which would sound more at home on a DJ sample CD, it goes precisely nowhere in four minutes. On the other hand, the very mathy-sounding “Anaphase” is the clear standout, riding a pumping delayed guitar lick into full-blown whammy/wah bass rawk. Daughter chromosomes moving away from each other to opposite ends of the cell has never rocked so hard. And perfectly beautiful guitar never hurt, either.
Non-prog fans need not apply. Not everyone can deal with Bolt’s lack of vocals and lyrics. Just ask the vindictive singer-songwriter who calls for Bolt’s execution on “Vendetta” via voicemail. Of course, a voice would humanize Bolt’s highly quantized form of rock. And it’s better to just sit back and let the thundering, gutteral swells of bass drone through your skull while the guitar ties twists and knots around your brain, anyway.
RIYL King Crimson, Darediablo. Or if you wish Tortoise would louden up and win the race already.
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Tags: anaphase, awesome, bolt, darediablo, indie, math rock, movement and detail, prog
