Whilst many bands at certain operational levels come alive for evenings and weekends, it seems as if the members of Chicago power-trio Stomatopod need them more than most outside of their day jobs, to discharge emotionally and recharge electrically.
With this second full-length album from the ensemble – following on from 2022’s sturdy six-song Steve Albini-cut Competing With Hindsight mini-LP – it feels like the post-nine-to-five uncorking is positively explosive.
Put to tape again at the late Albini’s Electrical Audio studio, but with Jon San Paolo at the controls this time around, the ten-track sub-editor-disturbing DrizzleFizzle from the returning threesome of John Huston (vocals / guitar), Sharon Maloy (bass / vocals) and Elliot Dicks (drums) runs hot right from the start, with a pace that rarely slackens throughout.
And what a start it is. With the one-two punch of “Spatchcocked” and “Tiger Rider”, the group’s triangular fusions funnel the ferocity of early Fugazi, the gangly vim of primordial Karate and the emotional adrenaline of Beet-to-Lived To Tell-era Eleventh Dream Day. Such convergence forms the primary template for the record as a whole. This leads to further highlights through the vintage quiet / loud dynamics within “Sweet Dreams”; the call-and-response vocal buoyancy of “Beige” and “Someone Else’s Enemies”; the yearning strung-out passages of “Ocean Slider”; the guitar vs. drums duelling of the title track; and the heavy effects-drenched sprawling that dominates the closing “Backwards To Infinity”.Although, arguably, DrizzleFizzle could do with a bit of extra internal space and some great sonic variety to give some of the songs more room to breathe, its infectiously rousing energy and compellingly churning wordplay does make it a reliably handy tool for loudly blowing away the mental cobwebs at the end of a hard-working week.
-Adrian-
