Chisel Drill Hammer
Chisel Drill Hammer
[Hefty]
Rating: 5.2
Am I crazy or is Chicago becoming the center of the universe? Pitchfork's
offices are moving to Chi-town in a few short days, new record labels are
blossoming down there like wildflowers, Steve Albini's Electrical Audio
studio is booked solid through 2023, and every palooka and his brother is
forming an instrumental rock band. What gives? What exactly is in that
Lake Michigan water besides spent freighter fuel?
Whatever it is, keep it coming because music hasn't been this exciting in
years. I wish I could say the same about Chisel Drill Hammer. Their debut
EP is new on John Hughes III (son of every bratpacker's surrogate father)
Hefty Records, and while it shows some promise, it's not terribly
exciting. They're an instrumental guitar/ bass/ drum combo doing the now
ubiquitous tricky- math- rock- by- way- of- Slint thing, without the
style or intensity of their forebearers.
You expect a band like this to noodle, and they do, but their
improvisations fall a little short of angel hair territory. "Elegy for
the Original" has some gorgeous melodic interplay in between the
double- time start/ stop bits, and "Shunt" has solid chord changes, but
the rest of this record is pretty generic. On the plus side, the playing
is great, as is the Albini- recorded sound. And I do have to give it up to
these guys for keeping the songs nice and short, a real rare showing of
restraint in this crowded genre. Give them some time to develop and
explore more varied textures, and we could still see something great from
Chisel Drill Hammer.
-Mark Richard-San