| 61.
A good rock/pop song is usually a well-balanced mix of melody, beat and
lyrics, with a good solo thrown in. remove one of these ingredients and
the remainder need to be of an even higher order, meaning instrumental
music, as is the case here, can no longer rely on a simple repeating pattern
with a few riffs, that is unless you are in The Shadows! Take away another
element, the solo, and the playing field becomes very narrow indeed, but
rather than strangling themselves with minimalism, Dysrhythmia have expanded
their thinking and composition, pulling in elements of math rock, noise,
ambience, metal and the left field. Starting off strongly with 'Bastard'
and 'My Relationship', the album gets better with each song. 'Annihilation
I', a gentle Slint affair resplendent with harmonics, gently feeds back
into 'Annihilation II', a curious song with structure like a plate of
spaghetti and the 11- minute closer 'Touch Benediction' has touches of
Zeni Geva guitar torture. Difficult yes, but very rewarding. Ian Webster
- Terrorizer Magazine 62. Dysrhythmia are a Philadelphia trio who, album by album, are perfecting their blend of muscular prog, hardcore and thrash metal. Pretest often sounds like King Crimson covering I Against I- era Bad Brains - only without vocals. Instrumental rock, particularly when it focuses on technique see (Joe Satriani) rather than pushing your skull thru your shoes (hello, Earth), can skirt the perilous edge of suckitude. But, barring Steve Albini's drum-heavy mix, Pretest is a winner because it rocks while simultaneously inspiring fits of knuckle-busting air guitar. Phil Freeman - Alternative Press 63. Dysrhythmia is musicians rock. The Philadelphia instrumental trio is hardly a pack of art-damaged hipsters, although it does play an experimental freeform style of avant jazz, threaded through the needle of mathamatically timed metal. You won't hear Pretest bellowing from the speakers of your local coffeehouse watering hole. While the average listener might get bored by and start nodding off in the middle of the album due to Pretest's lack of vocals, a finely tuned and trained ear will relish and bask in unearthing the layers of precision and musicianship. Pretest is a tense affair; you feel your neck and shoulders stiffen while you listen to it. This is undoubtedly due to the recording efforts of noisenik Steve Albini, who has manned the boards for everyone from Nirvana to Jesus Lizard, Don Caballero and Neurosis. The real fun of Pretest is the way each song bleeds into the next seamlessly. You never know when a song ends or another begins and that's what lends spontaneity and excitement to a record wound tighter than a pair of pron star's pants. Pretest is an aquired taste meant for a specific audience. But I'm not saying that you're lowbrow if you don't dig this. It's simply not digestible for the masses. It's not something I will throw on the stereo when I am at home and just wanting to relax and enjoy music, but I can certainly see my gearhead friends sucking this one down with glee. Amy Sciarretto - Metal Maniacs 64. Dysrhythmia have met with rave reviews along their entire career. Venues are "changed", people confused, they are unstoppable. So the critics say. Well I am a critic too, and a cynic and I'm skeptical about this band. They sound amazing, yes. The creativity behind their music is remarkable. The way they put sounds together is incredible. Alternative Press calls them a "sickeningly talented trio" and I do agree. My skepticism lies in the listenability of their music. Something about progressive metal without vocals irks me. I don't know if I could really get into it. While their skills and creativity astound me, they seem like just another group of hotshot musicians without the completeness that vocals bring to music of this genre. They are not an orchestra, nor do they support a soloist....... I don't know, to me it seems incomplete. But if you don't think instrumental rock bands sound incomplete, Dysrhythmia are among the best, so check them out. - One Golden Spoon 65. Steve Albini produced this record. In many ways, that’s all you need to know. Fans of his style (clear, transparent recordings of ultra-tight, forceful math-rock) will revel in this all-instrumental offering from talented Philadelphia prog-punk trio Dysrhythmia. Detractors will find this a quintessentially Albini-sounding record: super-punchy drums panned hard, snarly mid-rangy guitars, and crispy, overdriven bass played with a pick. So, is it good? The answer is yes, but probably only to a certain ear. Fans of bygone S.F. trio Gift Horse will dig this record. So will aficionados of the skate-jazz stylings of Don Caballero and Tommy Guerrero. The composition style possesses a whimsy I haven’t heard much since the early ‘90s—to call this “prog” is really a misnomer, as it hearkens back to Saccharine Trust and the many subterranean bands of their ilk. I have a peculiar nostalgia for those bands; Dysrhythmia sounds to me like the house band at a lounge bar where all the old art punks still hang out. Musically, it’s quite ambitious, but it sometimes risks becoming tedious—perpetual shifts in time signature can become a chore to listen to, as can noodly solos and the endless repetition of riffy musical ideas. In spite of these minor beefs, I’m pretty stoked that arty skate rock is making a comeback. Everything is perfectly executed, in what appear to be live takes with minimal overdubbed guitar solos. The music seems to exist for the sake of the band’s own gratification. As for the retro-prog-punk-skate-jazz thing, maybe it has something to do with the kind of records people make when there’s a Bush in the White House. Bill Heehan - Bay Area Buzz 66. Dysrhythmia had me the moment I heard their track on Contaminated 5.0. Pretest, their debut for Relapse, pulls the reins just a tad tighter on the instrumental trio's complex arrangements, allowing sparse melody and breathing room to build up much of the tension. No doubt Steve Albini's "so live it's like you're in the room with them" production lent Pretest an air of organic spontaneity, but it's the trio's grasp of balance that really communicates the music's ideas and contours. Unlike The Cancer Conspiracy or Don Caballero, Dysrhythmia are not interested in playing the most complicated, fucked up eight-minute instrumental on the planet. They'd rather dance around each other's gliding shadows, never too far behind to fall off, yet never getting ahead of one another. Like figure skating partners choreographing a routine that fits them as closely together without mimicking each other, Pretest's performances and songwriting fit like a glove... but with each finger its own entity at the same time. After four or five listens, I still find something new to focus on every time I play this. And maybe that's just cuz I'm a music geek - prog instrumentals aren't for the average housewife, I'll admit that - but for those in the know, listening to a band as economic-yet-detailed as Dysrhythmia is like watching a seagull do effortless flips in the air, nose dive at the drop of a hat, fish a prey out of the sea, and fly 180 degrees in the opposite direction without breaking continuity. Graceful. Timothy Den - Lollipop Magazine 67. My introduction to Dysrhythmia was live, and boy did they blow my tiny little mind to bits. That show was one of the most powerful sights I had ever seen. To capture the raw energy of their live show, Dysrhythmia, now with a fairly big independent record company (Relapse), enlisted Steve Albini as a producer. Albini, a legend of epic proportions in Independent circles, known for his great live recordings, didn't do them any good on this one. While the record sound very "live" and spontaneous it lacks crunch. While most metal journalist will tell you that this is really strange music, it really isn't that strange: The music is progressive, jazz, metal and post-roc in nature. The biggest difference is that the album is instrumental. As a trio the band weave around each other the melody and rhythm into perfect symbiotic playing that is often similar to what the "rock" Zorn bands are able to achieve (Spillane, the Big Gundown etc..) While the structures are a bit odd and the genre blending difficult at first, the result is still a very easily digestible plate of music that flows very well from one song to the next. What is more disappointing is the lack of truly majestic songwriting that this kind of endeavor would have needed. Instead what we have is a very good soundtrack around a very talented band but no real winners in terms of songs. Still, this is a very ambitious record to be released on a primarily metal label, where it doesn't quite fit. In fact this record would be more at ease with record labels, ultimately more successful, like Matador or Touch and Go. I enjoy this record simply because it is good but I won't say that it is exceptional. Simon Thibaudeau - Mindspell 68. This is probably the most unusual and strange record I have received for reviewing to this date. "Pretest" is different in a lot of aspects. First of this album is over 53 minutes long and you will not find any vocals on it. The whole album is an "instruments only" one. As the name DYSRHYTHMIA already says it these musical devices aren`t "easy listening" ones whatsoever. I guess you`d listen to the CD numberless times, you still would find sounds/passages that you didn`t notice before, actually making you believe you are witnessing a live "jam session" in a club or something. This is one fact that makes this album so interesting and unusual. The other one is the "jazzy" approach to the songs. There are a lot of impelling and hectic Rock and even Metal guitar tunes, but in the background you always will find this typical Jazz atmosphere in almost every of the nine songs. Alongside lots of relaxing, slow and almost ambient sounds, this combination was quite thrilling listening to... You cannot categorize this record entirely by any chance as there are too many different facets to be found on one single record. Just looking for a straight Metal or Hardcore release, "Pretest" won`t satisfy you at all. If you are looking for a completely new sound experience and if you have an open ear for lots of different music styles, make sure to remember the name DYSRHYTHMIA. Favourite Song: My Relationship John Doe - Vegan Hardcore 69. The Philly instrumental trio has done it again, this time with the help of legendary producer Steve Albini. This CD is amazing, no questions about it, the only thing more amazing is thier live performace, which you should catch if you can. Some of the albums highlights include "Bastard" "Catalogue of Personal Faults" and "Running Shoe of Justice" though the whole cd is worth at the least 30 or so listens. Ryan - WKDU Communique 70. I think I have a new favorite label. The stuff we got from Relapse this issue is real good. Of course I loved the sludgy stuff that was available on the comp, but this instrumental is good as well. Before Dysrhythmia, the only instrumental I liked was Spickle from NOLA. Now Spickle is some good stuff. It's the kind of stuff you can make when you put a lot of musicians together with a bag of weed. By musician I mean the real thing, a bunch of guys that are gifted at composing music. Dysrhythmia seems a little less reefer influenced, but definitely worth listening to. I'm thinking you will probably hear this in skateboard videos in the future. - Truckstop Magazine 71. Musical virtuosity and the display of it straddles a very fine line. On one end of the spectrum you have wankers like Dave Weckl and Steve Vai. Clearly these guys can play their instruments better than you can, but you'd never know it because unless you're a loyal until death reader of Modern Drummer or Guitar For The Practicing Musician, chances are you've never even heard of them. On the flip side of this coin is Dysrhythmia, a band who clearly possesses a mastery of their instruments. Now these guys can rock the fuck out in any awkward time signature you can think of, and they do. However, unlike those other wankers, Dysrhythmia don't bask in the pleasure of playing every note on the fretboard faster than you can, but rather they play with enough subtlety and feeling that they slowly draw you in and hook you. Nine tracks of progressive (that word has such nasty connotation) instrumental rock that flow with enough unspoken emotion that you to tend to forget that these guys are each doing some pretty technically impressive shit on their respective instruments, and just enjoy it for what it is.... music. - Aaron Lefkove Law of Inertia 72. Philadelphia's Dysrhythmia got no weird words (except the name). They're an instrumental-"only" rock trio, which, on Pretest, can mean a theme dreamed like Medusa's hotcombs through another kinda ricochet-maze (incl. not hummable tunes but tunefulness: reassuring/intriguing bait). Sideswiping fusion, prog, punk, and metal, Dys are Deans of Fairplay Rockspoticism. They never push originality or influence too hard (unlike heroes of previous paragraphs). Results speak: "Running Shoe of Justice" was slam-dunk-christened by an audience member, when he first heard the untitled instro. But Dysrhythmia aren't just about smelly ol' shoes, smelly ol' justice; they be mellow. Guitar-bass-drums and back, playin' a little keep-away, like Suntanama, Rounders, and Mars Volta after all. (Smoke signals seem to read: "Soon as listeners think they completely get any music, they basically stop listening." Untrue, guys! [Guys?]) - Village Voice NYC 73. Shit! How am I supposed to judge this one? It isn't heavy metal for sure, it's an album I could easily characterize as progressive rock but it's more than that. The 3 musicians from Philadelphia (guitar, bass, drums) for sure love jazz music, but they also have a rock background. So what they have created sounds like TOOL trying to play jazz. The album is instrumental, and it's not easy to listen at all. It requires the listeners' full attendance and I think that musicians will mostly appreciate it. This doesn't mean that the rest shouldn't try to listen to it. Anyone who likes progressive music should give Dysrythmias' music a chance. It's something very interesting that deserves the time you will spend on it! I cannot evaluate such an album with just a mark so there's none. Metal Provider 74. Having established themselves as one of the most extraordinaire progressive bands of the U.S underground, the Dysrhythmia boys are back with a vengeance. These insane instrumentalists gained a record deal with Relapse which gave them the opportunity to release another extreme record, always proposing the fusion, progressive side of today’s music. “Pretest” is a noted improvement on their self financed debut, boasting a better production and stronger material than anything the band previously done. While “No Interference” was rightfully hailed as one of the most extreme records of the progressive underground, it’s not unfair to say that “Pretest” takes the things even one step further in terms of potentiality. I surely can’t avoid the description that Philadelphia City Paper gave to the band… “This (Philadelphia) trio have made the record Sonic Youth would make if they cared more about heavy metal, the record Slayer would do if they were art-school nerds.”. This was for sure a very heavy statement but how can you describe precisely a bunch of musicians which unpredictability and musical abnormality are their daily toys? The cynical style of Dysrhythmia is by far one of the most unique you can meet while you’re walking the paths of the prog drylands… They’ll never be the stars, they may be disappear the next day… Who really knows for sure… But after all, what it counts is their possession to the extreme songwriting, carrying at the same time melodies (!?) for the chosen few. Hear and believe! - Greg Baxevanidis The Temple of Metal 75. What it is supposed to be: No artwork, liner notes, or any clues as to the contents. Had I not read about the drummer on Spastic Ink's website I would never have picked it up. NOTE TO BANDS: It's the entire package that sells the product. What it is: Heavy or progressive instrumental discs present one fundamental problem: "How does the artist engage the listener without a vocalist?" Most fusion, jazz, guitar oriented instru-metal, and similar 'lead-singer-free' bands rely on their instrumental prowess, 'player X's' virtuosity, or, if the band/artist has management and distribution, press hype. The rare few provide melody, harmony, texture, or gasp....a unified concept, limiting the options for people like me who like progressive, heavy music without vocals but can't survive on the instrumental equivalent of musical diarrhea. If I think back, the number of bands that have managed to combine the abovementioned criteria into a cohesive product are few and far between. Dysrhythmia do not number among them. The members of this trio are talented, skilled musicians, gifted with technical ability and a sense of the absurd (ie, humor in their music), but they don't have (or chose not to use) the ability to weave melody, texture, dynamics and orchestration into their compositions, relying instead on scattershot rhythms, staccato guitar/bass lockstep riffing and "pulling nails from planks" guitar tones, with nary a passing nod to harmony. When I say 'harmony', I mean the interaction between sounds that produces a pleasing effect: musical symbiosis. Atonality in parallel motion with more atonality usually results in an unlistenable, or at best, unappetizing, morass. 'Pleasing' is subjective; but if I'm going to buy something, I want to listen to it and immediately be glad I bought it. I don't want to analyze it theoretically on first listen. I want music to draw me in, to make me want to explore it further upon repeated listens. Dysrhythmia should have taken the budget they got for this disc and hired a producer who would have helped the band arrange and orchestrate the music. Truth be told, the disc sounds like Mr Albini phoned it in-it sounds great-dry, articulate, and sonically punchy, but flaccid nonetheless, lack lustre in its attempts at studio sheen. Too bad. The band can really play their instruments and the music has a unique, quirky quality and I feel that there is a great disc hidden somewhere in the midst of all the musical Tourettes. Rating: 3-/5 A little guitar synth or keyboard wouldn't kill ya. The minus is for dropping Steve Albini's name for no good reason and not providing any information about the band. - Jan-Mikael Stormbringer 76. I just don’t have the time to formally review this album, but feel I would be remiss if I didn’t at least attempt to get you guys to check them out. They are an instrumental trio from Philly with a heavy, heavy prog influence. If you long for the days of early Don Caballero (this drummer is just as good as Mr. Che) or are in the mood for The Jesus Lizard minus David Yow, these guys are for you. Most of the reviews I have read label them as “mathcore,” but inaccurately so, in my humble opinion. Unlike many math bands, Dysrhythmia have the unique ability to showcase their incredible talent in very subtle way. Very much like Darediablo does. I’ve recently seen calendars indicating that Dysrhythmia will share the stage with Pelican and Khanate. They are the perfect fit for this bill -- not quite as heavy and atmospheric as Pelican, not quite as chaotic as Khanate. And with Mr. Albini behind the knobs, I need say nothing else about the production. - Kevin Musiakiewicz Hellride Music 77. Though No Interference hinted at Spastic Ink-styled technical metal, Dysrhythmia have gone down an entirely different path with Pretest, their first label-released album. I suspect their dedication to live performance and exhaustive touring are primarily responsible for the direction on Pretest, which owes more to Don Caballero or The Champs than it does to Spastic Ink and Watchtower (although the Voivod influences are still there if you look for them). If you've ever seen Dysrhythmia, then you know what I'm talking about: they're an incredibly animated band that in one show gets more done on stage with three guys and no singer than most five man bands do on their whole tour. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to play "Body Destroyed, Brain Intact" live. I do miss their more intense instrumental workouts a little, but Pretest is by and far a better disc than No Interference, and it amply demonstrates that the band have indeed found their own sound. The most striking element in Dysrhythmia's sonic palette is the gritty bass work of Clayton Ingerson, who stands on equal footing with guitarist Kevin Hufnagel. If pressed to, I'd have a hard time thinking of a rock band with a more up-front bass presence. In fact, as Hufnagel frequently digresses down long chordal passages, Ingerson is often left to tend to the melody (to the extent that it exists). As with their live show, though, the real star of Dysrhythmia is drummer Jeff Eber, whose boundless energy and creativity pervade even the slow songs. Not surprisingly, however, I prefer the faster, more rocking tunes like "Bastard" or "And Just Go" to the slow crescendo of "Annihilation II" and I'll admit there are moments on this disc that I cannot help but skip. (I almost never make it to the end of "Touch Benediction", which takes for-fucking-ever to get going, and then doesn't really go anywhere.) Steve Albini's natural production captures the band almost exactly as you'd hear them live, and there are few (if any) overdubs to be heard on Pretest, which is something you're not likely to hear on a metal album. I've been following this band for a long time (I believe I have all their releases, which include a number of incredibly cool vinyl issues) and this is easily the best release to date, recommended for open minded fans of hard instrumental albums. - Matt Johnson Feast or Famine 78. First of all, this is the Dysrhythmia record I had hoped would happen after hearing Interference. Steve Albini has taken this amazing instrumental trio and brought out the full, lively, BIG sound. The drum sound is crisp without being tinny; warm without being muddied. And that snare sound kills. Clayton's bass sound comes through as solid, with great low end and clarity. Kevin's guitar tones are well varied, and each is great. Interference was a great record, but the overall production lacked a little ooomph to really make it feel that much more effective. So kudos to whomever made this pairing. From there, I should take a step backwards and mention a little about this band. They're essentially an instrumental trio from Philadelphia who play interesting arrangements of rock-twinged music melded with jazz leanings and an almost metallic edge. Clayton Ingerson's rumble-gurgle overdriven bass mingles with Jeff Eber's snap-tight precision drumming while Kevin Hufnagel weaves a mixture of complimentary rhythms and textures. Every member is incredibly adept at playing, and it's incredible to hear how these three amazing individuals seamlessly conjoin their distinct parts. Most would call it "math rock", but I find that too simplistic and contrived. And actually, a lot of it doesn't seem that math-y; maybe my senses are a bit dulled after listening to a lot of Dream Theater in high school, but quite a bit of this material stays within the 'normal' range of time signatures (4/4, 6/8, etc- although as mentioned in the breakdown of “Running Shoe of Justice” below, there are certainly highly evolved rhythmic arrangements afoot). But it's not constant time signature changes that should keep you pinned to listening at every turn here. It's the arrangements. The way a given song will flow. There are times when each musician is doing something entirely different, creating a maniacal, feverish scene (like at the 0:48 mark of “Catalog of Personal Faults”); then the song will push into a more unison section, giving the composition more focus (like the section immediately following the one I just mentioned in “Catalog...”) and direction. There are moments of broad, expansive textured sounds (like in “Annihilation II” and “Touch Benediction”), and just grooving sections (like the beginning of “Annihilation I”). The section of “Annihilation I” immediately following the 3:00 mark kills me: dead-on unison stops (also check the banter at the end of the song, which I would guess shows they were all playing live together- wonder if that was a click track or recorded live? I'd guess it'd be near impossible to overdub without a click track...). The gargantuan sloth-like sound of “Touch Benediction” is so filled with juicy tones I can't stand it: the delay-soaked bass melodies and guitar textures on top of the ABSOLUTELY HUGE drum sound just slays. For those who have witnessed the warm, booming sound of Isis' Oceanic drum sound, this is a bit clearer but just as amazing. Even Clayton's feedback is amazing. Hearing all the tiny nuances makes this 11 and a half minute song pass almost instantaneously: Jeff's little in-between pedaling of the high hat and tiny cymbal rolls and accents and Kevin's and Clayton's changing fret slides and vibrato make the song breathe all the more. A very weighty, pensive end to the record, especially after hearing how many different ways they can slice a beat in much of the rest of it. For those looking forward to dissecting some of the more rhythmic intensive portions of the album, fear not: the counting portion of your brain will certainly get its exercise here. I just didn't want anyone to automatically dismiss this album as an all-out geekfest with no emotionally engaging musical aspects to it; although that does happen with many records, I believe it's not the case here. They've managed to take intelligent rhythmic arrangements and combine them with enough hooks to make a mixed bag of tricks backed by thoroughly engaging and energetic musicianship, forming a collection of pieces that (collectively) runs the sonic gamut with real confidence. “Running Shoe of Justice”, for instance, starts with two distinct rhythmic phrases (and I seriously hope I don't botch this dissection): one on guitar, in 9/8 and one on drums/bass which is in 6/8. Each phrase is played once by itself and then the two start together, overlapping in a seemingly disjointed manner until (after 72 beats, or 8 measures of 9/8 and 12 measures of 6/8), they all land on a unison 6/8 section culminating in a solid, rising feel before they launch back into a more active version of the first section. After the second turn through, the song builds to a more frenzied "chorus" (without words, obviously) before dropping down at 2:20 to another interestingly textured odd rhythm. Time changes and interesting arrangements like these are just some of the twists and turns that make this record a joy to listen to on both the aesthetic level and the musical geek level alike. Beyond this amazing record, though, is a truly phenomenal band that simply MUST be witnessed live. I am most definitely not kidding. Even at the tiny Lemp Arts Center in St. Louis (which is really the first floor of a 2-flat, where the bands perform on the floor and the audience sits in what is basically old garage furniture- worn couches, random broken chairs, etc.) with about 7 paying people, the band put on a thoroughly energetic live show that few could top. The groove and vibe these three musicians get going between them is just something that has to be seen. They do tour often, so check their site for dates. Between Clayton's jumping around (how he can keep playing like that I have no idea), Kevin's amazing playing and guitar tones, and Jeff's hard hitting and massive BEATZ, you won't be sorry. - Eric Burnley indieworkshop.com 79. What is this? I have been listening to music for many years, but this band is hard to categorize. There is an abundance of influences: Rush, Indie-rock, Jazz, Slayer, punk, ambient. I hear instrumental music I haven’t heard before and that is an achievement worth a compliment. The musicians of Dysrhythmia are quite adequate, the rhythms surprising and unpredictable. The songs are well written and the lack of vocals is more than compensated for by variation. Normally it is hard to music to words, but Disrhythmia makes being a reviewer very difficult. The distorted bass and guitar remind me of Sonic Youth and The Melvins. The arrangements are close to those of Slayer and Rush, but the mood is more close to Tool and ambient music. Is it any good? Difficult question. This is not catchy music, but the newness of it is intriguing. After several spins I still do not know how to review this album. A score of 80 points or more is not justified while 75 points or less shows too less respect for their urge for innovation. In this case I strongly advise to listen and make your own judgement. - Richard V. Lords of Metal 80. With a name that almost perfectly suits them, Dysrhythmia signed to Relapse in the Fall of 2002, and immediately set out to make a name for themselves. Not what you have come to expect from the guys at Relapse, this Philadelphia trio plays some of the most technical jazzy prog-rock out there, and does so with what seems like relative ease. I promise, you won’t miss vocals for the slightest moment. I had the privilege of seeing Dysrhythmia live twice before the release of “Pretest,” and I will be the first to say that the record does them no justice whatsoever. I love the album, and can listen to it quite a bit, but witnessing them live is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The energy that the 3 young men convey amazes me, and demands respect from even the most brutal of metalheads. Listening to “Pretest,” would make you think they would simply stand there, concentrating on their respective instruments, however, the guys flail across the stage, bump into one another, and even fall down, without missing a single part. But, anyway, this isn’t a live review, it is an album review, so I will make it short and sweet. Dysrhythmia chose to record this album at the world-famous Electrical Audio B Studios in Chicago, with none other than Steve Albini. No place seems quite as fitting for the genre, and the end result is outstanding. To get an idea of what Dysrhythmia sound like, check out “Running Shoe of Justice,” “Bastard,” or “My Relationship,” but to get the full experience, it is definitely an album you need to listen to from open to close. I may be a little bias, but regardless, “Pretest” is an album that gets my “Must Own” Seal of Approval. Not quite as good musically as their previous independent release, “No Interference,” this album is going to be much easier to find, and has a nearly flawless recording. If you like what you hear, just remember, it only gets better, so go seek out their previous album, and see them live, soon! - Mark Osborne Decoy |