Cryptacize previewed
Hideout, Chicago
Friday, July 10, 2009
It’s ludicrous to guess the intentions behind anyone’s art, but with Mythomania it feels like Cryptacize actually see a future in what they’re doing.
It didn’t seem so with 2007’s Dig Your Treasure (Asthmatic Kitty). The trio’s debut acted like theater designed to antagonize more than engage, sparse art rock colliding garage bands and twee pop to piss off both camps. The only impression that remained was the performance, not the songs. That in mind, Mythomania is striking. Cryptacize are still interested in the sounds they can make, but each piece is cohesive, balances on its own. Anyone who could tolerate Treasure at all could withstand the whole piece, such was the uniformity of its approach. But Mythomania can be ingested step by step, as much as this might disappoint fans who got off on the old frayed-nerves intensity. Opener “Tail & Mane” highlights Nedelle Torrisi’s affection for Tin Pan Alley. “Blue Tears” and the title track let her wander in pre-Woodstock/Los Angelino psychedelia, punctuated by tinny guitars and crackling distortion. On “The Cage,” they stir memories of their theatrical disposition, but are able to act it out in the linearity of a bouncy, 150-second pop song, capped wonderfully by “New Spell”‘s broken march.
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and Serengeti & Polyphonic open.
— Kevin Keegan
Click here to download “Blue Tears.”
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
