Clatter For Control [Digipak]

The third album by Montreal-based experimental music duo Hangedup follows the same pattern as their first two. Cellist Genevieve Heistek plays a souped-up instrument that's attached to an electronic device that loops and adds feedback and other sonic effects to her playing. (Think Frippertronics, only with a bit less structural elegance and a lot more up-yours attitude.) Drummer Eric Craven -- formerly of the considerably more sedate twee popsters Nerdy Girl -- bashes his kit with manic abandon most of the time and lays out entirely otherwise, with almost nothing in between. Producer Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You Black Emperor!) seemingly did little other than turn the machines on, Steve Albini fashion, giving the album a muddy, undefined quality that's particularly frustrating on those passages (mostly at the beginnings and ends of songs) when Heistek's playing evinces a certain lyricism, but adds to the general tumult on songs like the onomatopoeic "Klang Klang." It's rarely pretty, but the soundscapes are often fascinating, for those with a taste for this sort of thing. ~ Stewart Mason|