For its first album(s) in almost four years, Mercury Rev has more or
less ditched the idea of trying to sound like a band and dove full-on
into the psychedelic-electronic rabbit hole. The results are really
something — if you played Snowflake Midnight next to one
of the band’s early-’90s guitar-noise workouts, you’d think the two
were recorded centuries apart. (Technically they were.) In a way, these
tracks have more in common with those early blasts than with their
well-regarded attempts at Americana, in that song structures have been
thrown out the window in favor of high drama, and a whole different
kind of noise. Snowflake marks the beginning of the third act
for a band that has been defined by change throughout its perplexing
career.
Companion piece Strange Attractor, available as a free
download from the band’s web site, is the Amnesiac to
Snowflake‘s Kid A … sort of. Or maybe it’s the other
way around. Made up of eleven instrumental pieces and experimental
soundscapes, Attractor at points recalls Dots and
Loops-era Stereolab and Eno’s ambient works, both favorably. Tune
into Snowflake Midnight; drop out to Strange
Attractor.
