31 Knots – The Curse of the Longest Day

Xbxrx – Sixth In Sixes / 2005 Polyvinyl / 18 Tracks / http://www.xbxrx.com / http://www.polyvinylrecords.com / Reviewed 17 July 2005

The music that Xbxrx plays will be loved by all the religious noise nerds out there in the world, but the music contained within draws largely from the hard-rock of the late eighties and early nineties. Sure, there are aberrations to this idea (specifically the uber-electronic and distorted thirty-second blast of “Euphoria”, but the intensity that Xbxrx plays their music directly follows from the slow-burning embers of the sludge rock of Morbid Angel, Kyuss and even Corrosion of Conformity. The tracks are short (hovering at about 1:30 a go), but the harmonies that some tracks (specifically “Beat Rolls On”) are able to create and maintain in this short period of time show that much of the current style in creating music is largely fluff; that three-minute runtimes of songs really can be compressed to ninety seconds or even further.

Xbxrx are musical visionaries in the sense that during the entirety of their “Sixth in Sixes”, the band actually maintains a sort of pop-influence; this is not to say that they take their extra time listing to Britney, but rather always consider the listener, instead of making something intentionally perverse and annoying with their time at the studio. “Breathing” uses the same length thatg marks most of the tracks on “Sixth in Sixes”, but also shows the band using a high amount of repetition, which would be normally a faux pas but is done in Xbxrx’s case for such a short time that it actually increases the enjoyment one can feel from the track.

Even on tracks that threaten to turn listeners off with nothing but distortion and feedback (Self Indulgent), Xbxrx are quick enough on their feet to change up the sounds before moving into something that resembles a late-seventies punk song at times. Their influences are really worn on their sleeve, as different sections of these songs will be reminiscent of some acts, and before listeners can truly tell what is happening, the band has moved on. The disc ends with 18 cuts covering 25 minutes, but the effect that “Sixth in Sixes” has on listeners will stay much longer than that. The tremendous drumming during “Make Force”, along with the ever-present bass lines on the final track, “In Memory Of Our Lives” will fixate the band in any listener’s general memory for years to come. The direction that noise is going (especially with bands like Some Girls and The Locust) will be lead to even greater success by Xbxrx, and I cannot wait.

Top Tracks: In Memory Of Our Lives, Beat Rolls On

Rating: 7.7/10