The first song off Israeli band LEBANON's new album is called "Finland." I am reviewing it in Canada for an American-based website possibly read by Venezuelan immigrants in Portugal. Globalization sure is something. The title and (very cool) artwork of LEBANON's album, "Planet Rubble," seems to reflect on the resultant avant-trash culture of bricolage and hybridization. Yet this isn't world music by any means, nor particularly Middle-Eastern or Klezmer-inspired despite the band name and origin. This isn't the Levant's answer to SLINT; this is Slint fans' answer to Slint.

An instrumental rock affair, LEBANON play on the dynamic, progressive math-rock tip of American fellow journeymen like DON CABALLERO and EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY. Personally, I would've been interested to see the music of LEBANON more reflective of its state of origin. I'm not talking about Ofra Haza singing overhead (though that could be interesting, if she weren't dead), but more of a musical acknowledgement of the exoticism inherent in the band name and album title. Tracks like the sinewy and galloping "The Dying Dying Man" certainly succeed on their own terms, but it takes more than sudden time-signature shifts to keep a listener fully engrossed over a 54-minute album. A talented and ambitious group for sure, but LEBANON have not yet entirely risen to the peaks of transcendence for which they aim.

- Shragge

OFFICIAL SITE: myspace.com/lebanonband

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