Austere, but not brooding, and slyly angular without alienating, Jet Black's debut Escape Measures packs some serious musculature. Muscle I might add, that's carefully allocated to mesh with the bittersweet melodicism of the scintillating opener "6 AM" and a little further in "Daydreamer" and "Archives." Coincidentally or not, much of this album exudes the finer aptitudes and facets of so many of my personal favorite '90s underdogs including Sprinkler, Skiploader, Monsterland and Failure. In fact, I never thought I'd see the day where I could use even one of the aforementioned as a comparison, let alone all four in one fell swoop, but this is the kind of indulgence Escape Measures delivers, yet Jet Black's aesthetic strikes me as far too advanced to be deemed as a mere throwback.
Between all the gritty and gauzy guitar grandeur, the record offers some quieter respites in the form of "Engine Up" and "Elevator," but in toto, Escape... is a sparks-flying corker, blistering and beautiful. Many happy returns. A limited vinyl edition run is available through Jet Black's website, but if you're looking for more instant gratification, iTunes, Emusic and Amazon have you covered.
3 comments:
This is good stuff, definitely gonna pick up the full length.
Just read Jack Rabid's review of this in the new Big Takeover - never having even heard of this band before - and hit up iTunes to sample it. Solid, SOLID record that will see me hitting up their Bandcamp page shortly to buy it as flac. And I see they are playing Toronto tonight and I am going to Toronto Day after tomorrow. Fuck.
and the new followup is even better! check out in paradox!
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