Formed in 1998, this instrumental five piece ensemble from Dublin, Ireland has put together a fine set of tunes. This, their third full-length disc (originally out last year on the Irish label Trust Me I'm a Thief ) has been released stateside by Australian Cattle God out of Austin, Texas. I can only assume a well-received performance at the 2003 SXSW festival in Austin helped seal the deal. RM brings to mind PELL MELL a tad with a little more jazz/prog leanings a la TORTOISE. The guitars are not unlike the lone COCTAILS (can’t believe it’s already been ten years since they broke up) album “Peel” that eschewed the jazz instrumentation of their other four albums in favor of a more rock approach.

The compositional elements and arrangements here are impressive, but the purism of clean guitars with such sparing use of any effects whatsoever (rare use of distortion and tremolo) starts to get a little old after a while. The occasional synthesizer helps out a little, but these axemen could definitely benefit from some more innovative, diverse and liberal effects use and throw away the close-minded “indie” dogma and/or jazz purism (although one can argue that jazz purism eschews guitars altogether) that may be clouding their creative judgment. That said, the bass and drums are very spot-on and the choppy rhythm guitar playing brings to mind Steve Reich’s collaborations with Pat Matheny.

The repetitiousness of the guitar licks also makes me think of the dual guitars of “Don Caballero 2” or SIX FINGER SATELLITE’s “The Pigeon is the Most Popular Bird”. However, this music is way mellower with some scattershot exceptions. “Hibernation Station” rids the band of its rhythm section and has 3 or 4 wavering guitar parts. Things start to pick up as the playing gets a little more aggressive with “Break Your Fingers Laughing”. On the ever atmospheric “Who Knows” they finally step on some effects pedals and trip out in an almost SPIRITUALIZED manner.

This is an interesting album that shows this band has quite a bit of potential. I’ll be willing to bet that their next album will start pushing them into their prime as a unit. I can’t say that it motivates me want to want to hear their earlier material, but it appears that their musical future may be just what the doctor ordered.

- Herring

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