Mason Proper

continued

tradition of refusing to play by the rules while making highly structured pop-rock music. The result is something decidedly twenty-first century and way cool.

Describing it to you is another matter. No

two songs on their thirteen-track debut CD, There Is a Moth in Your Chest, sound similar. You get dreamy singing and quiet guitar, followed by a space-age pointillistic chant, then an upbeat dance tune, then head-banging kraut rock that ends in a fury of blown fuses. Even within each song, they keep you guessing, with tempo changes, sudden stops, and gradual layering that transforms vocalist Jon Visger's sweet and simple melodies into a dense cacophony in under four minutes.

The instrumentation is mostly familiar — guitar (Brian Konicek), bass (Pat Stafford), drums (Chris Aben), tight harmonies — but it also includes what the band describes as "mad science" played by Matt Thomson. This DIY ("do it yourself") noise sends manipulated feedback and other sound effects through a keyboard or microphone to create eerie, bubbling, scratching, whistling, circus noises that take each piece into a new space and time. Indeed, "mad science" is an apt description.