Minsk – Out of a Center Which is Neither Dead Nor Alive
At a Loss Recordings – AAL018 – September 27th, 2005
By Jason Jordan
Minsk are good,
Minsk are great,
Minsk are wonderful. If Bob Wiley (from 1991’s
What About Bob?) were reviewing
Out of Center Which is Neither Dead Nor Alive, he might’ve concluded with that brief statement, and most readers would’ve been perfectly happy. Because, sans sugarcoating,
Minsk are colossal in just about every way, despite the near impossible goal – they set for themselves – of recording an LP that changes forms as frequently as this one does.
If one cares to align them with similar artists in the music scene, then I believe they tread closer to
Neurosis than anybody else. Hypothetically speaking, if
Minsk and
Neurosis are brothers, the former might be cousins with the likes of
Isis,
Pelican,
Tides,
Red Sparowes,
Mouth of the Architect, and all the other forerunners of the same – but different – subgenre. Like a frog, though, the song styles prefer to jump from leap pad to leap pad instead of settling for one main categorization. Whereas “Waging War on the Forevers” broods aimlessly at the beginning, it soon ups the ante by focusing on sludgy riffs punctuated by walls-of-distortion, while Mead’s (vocals, conga drums, keyboards) scratchy vocalizations thrive not in the foreground, not in the background, but somewhere in between. The
Mouth of the Architect-like commencement of “Narcotics and Dissecting Knives” is hinted at by its predecessor, but one simply cannot prepare for the euphoric trance that will envelop the listener during said opus. Unsurprisingly,
Out of a Center Which is Neither Dead Nor Alive shifts gears again upon the entrance of “Holy Flower of the North Star” as the band successfully incorporates tribal elements with stunning keyboard effects, which flail wildly. In addition,
Minsk are every bit as tastefully subtle as they are overpoweringly conspicuous due to the observation that most songs clutch both approaches with equal openness.
In truth,
Out of a Center Which is Neither Dead Nor Alive is one of the best efforts I’ve heard this year. And I wasn’t At a Loss when it came time to decide its worth, because it made the decision for me.
Minsk’s latest is one album that you should own, thus I urge you to seek it out. If you refuse, then I’ll be owning you in the very near future…like, soon.
9/10
Official Minsk Website
Official At a Loss Recordings Website
