Anyone familiar with the film Tremors
will undoubtedly remember the Graboids -- the gargantuan, subterranean
worm-like monsters who terrorized a Nevada
town. Well, now the Graboids have
reappeared on the opposite side of the USA, having metamorphosed into a
Virginia-based four-piece instrumental outfit. Formed in 2002 while still in high school, Graboids
spent the next four years touring, releasing EPs and generally trying
to create as many weird and wonderful sounds as their amplifiers would allow. Infinite
Delay represents the band's fourth release to date.
There is a distinct lack of post-rock/space
rock crossover bands, but Graboids
match this description perfectly, adeptly flitting from one end of the spectrum
to the other. From the static and disjointed voices marking the start of the
first track "Panda Cam 1" emerges a unearthly soundscape, with wailing guitars
and the crashing of cymbals creating an atmospheric piece which would not be
out of place in a Sigur Ros or Godspeed You! Black Emperor album.
But a marked change in direction is apparent in the second track, "Weapons of
Mass Distraction" - simple, catchy guitar lines soon give rise to riffs with a
much heavier edge (think Russian Circles or Pelican, perhaps)
before reverting to a more ambient outro.
The highlight of Infinite Delay is the ironically-named "Tremolo."
This track shows the same penchant for effects pedals as in the previous songs, as reverb
rather than tremolo is heavily featured (much akin to Mogwai's "R U
Still In 2 It," for instance). The two guitars come to intertwine
gracefully in the manner of Explosions In The Sky or This Will Destroy
You, with layers of distortion and a heavier sound becoming increasingly
more prominent. As the noise subsides, chiming guitars and the delicate sound
of a glockenspiel emerge as the track draws to a close.
I must admit, on first listening to
"Top Of The Network," I had to stop the CD to make sure I was still listening
to Graboids, just as I had to when I initially heard the ending of Bright
Red Paper’s Western Waves Crashing.
Featuring a political diatribe by UK hip-hop artist JEREMIAH,
it isn’t a bad song as such, just completely out of context for the album. So
saying, the quality of the rest of the album is such that I think we can
forgive Graboids this one inconsistency,
however.
Whether or not their Tremors
counterparts are extra-terrestrial is a matter for debate. However, with Infinite
Delay, Graboids have created
something as out-of-this-world as any instrumental release on the market. This
might just be the space rock/post-rock fusion you never realized you were
looking for.
-Richard White