Dmonstrations – Night Trrors, Shock! / 2006 GSL / 10 Tracks / http://www.myspace.com/dmonstrations / http://www.goldstandardlabs.com / Reviewed 31 April 2007

“Shark” is the first track of “Night Trrors, Shock!”, and the band seems a little discombobulated right off of the bat. While this can be a good tactic for some bands, it seems as if Dmonstrations do not get a solid footing before going off into something completely random. Still, there are some good rock influences present, and “Shark” is a track that individuals could dance along to quite easily. It seems as if the band settles down during the track, allowing the instruments to test each other out, which then results in a more cohesive Dmonstrations sound.

“Uvula” is the second track, and with all of the effort taken by the band during “Shark”, the result of “Uvula” is a much more hard-hitting and compelling sound for Dmonstrations. Sure, the guitars can go off on a tangent, but it seems like they are reined back in soon after. There is thus a very chaotic sound to Dmonstrations, but this chaos is strictly controlled by the and. The result is something that is influenced by the early emo rock of bands like Dag Nasty, but also by the seventies stoner rock and even some of the more noise-oriented acts like The Locust and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. The shrill guitars come back during “Coelacanth Shower”, but the guitars actually have a playmate; the vocals bounce back and forth between being an instrument that is bass and treble-heavy.

This undefined role operates as the source of chaos during this track, while the instrumentation is much more the “straight man” to the vocals. Again, the band is able to buckle down and create a compelling track by having elements of chaos and order at the same time. The disc may only be twenty-five minutes, but the different approaches taken by the band will take a while to get fully behind. I know that the first time I listened to the album, the band’s output seemed a little on the disjointed side. However, the second and subsequent times I focused in, what resulted was something more brilliant; there is always order lording over the chaos that is the focal point of a Dmonstrations track. Give “Night Trrors, Shock!’ a listen if you want to hear music that does not toe the “hip” line. A song like “London Machine” should be the standout track of the past year, but so few listeners had the chance to hear this album when it first came out.

Top Track: London Machine

Rating: 6.4/10

[JMcQ]