Rest At World's End is the third release from Humcrush, one of the many projects of Norwegian noise jazz connoisseurs Thomas Strønen (Food, Pohlitz, Parish, Maria Kannegaard Trio) and Ståle Storløkken (Supersilent). The album is comprised of 11 tracks, recorded from a variety of live shows - though the sound quality is so  clear one can hardly tell that it's not a studio effort. Here, the duo continues to hum and crush their way through the metallic melee that they have been charting since their eponymous debut. In comparison with their respective bands, the sound falls between the ballistic blitzkrieg of Supersilent and the contrapuntal meanderings of Food.

It would make sense to begin by saying that the quality of craft here is impeccable. Strønen's top notch percussive prowess can be described, though paradoxically, as wild control, while Storløkken's synth arsenal is vast and wandering. The sound is as much Dizzy Gillespie's "Salt Peanuts" as it is cold-floor, industrial electronica.

But I can't help but feel that continuously trying to find the space between these extremes is misleading or distracting...

Distracting... Now there's a place to begin. It proves difficult to press play on the first track, "Stream," and not discover that any form of multi-tasking will be impossible. The stuttering breakbeats of Strønen's kickdrum and snare seem to be provoking and picking a fight with Storløkken's low-frequency bass lines ducking and deking around it. The battle soon calms, then modulates into danceable funk before finally, in the last five seconds, slowing to half time and collapsing.

Following the opener, "Edingruv" sets aside reckless attack in favor of a walking pace, in search of melody. The shift is so stark that if you are listening to it through headphones on a bus or subway, you'll think that the volume was mysteriously cut. The track sets up what much of the middle of the record will do: slip into quiet explorations where polyrhythms cross-pollinate with converging lines of synth and sine waves. Appropriately, things do pick up on "Steam," where, in the final minute, the song begins to dismantle piece by iron-clad piece, like a steam train trying to brake, bolts flying off one by one until it is knocked on its side.

The word 'distracting' usually refers to something so loud and raucous that it becomes unignorable. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that to be distracted is to be caught by surprise, which is just what Humcrush is doing here. It is like walking in rain that is so sparse, it becomes impossible to tell whether the storm is ending or beginning - one drop hitting the bridge of your nose, then another gliding off your hand a few seconds later.

In this way, after the dead-of-night stalking of "Ghost Dance", the penultimate track, "Bullfight", crashes in with a minute of John McLaughlin speed and Krzysztof Penderecki discord, and then segueing into the album's closing, and most realized track, "Hit". While earlier tracks (such as "Rest At Worlds End" and "Airport") seemed to be the sprawling avant-musings of talented musicians, "Hit" uses patience and repetition effectively, allowing for space and simplicity while at the same time building their most cohesively layered groove. As is common in a lot of electro-jazz (Kieran Hebden and Steve Reid's work spring to mind here) development is the nature of improvisation. It makes sense, then, that the album reaches its pinnacle using complicated means to reach elemental ends. So while a listener should not try to chop vegetables or use a soldering iron while listening, the album is worth the distraction.

-Bryan Parys