
Weird ass Mr
Bungle-esque concept records about Power Rangers. Is this what
Matt has sunk to covering these days? Apparently yes, and
it is glorious. The product of musical mastermind Greg Murphy,
Pseudo/Sentai has traditionally put out strange music that
forced you to question your paradigms, however this latest offering,
the wonderfully weird Enter The Sentai takes
things to a whole new level of bizare. There is a very real madness
and sense of pure aural chaos here that elevates the work of
Pseudo/Sentai to
a whole new level. A little less out-there than its predecessor, the
almighty BansheeFace,
Enter The Sentai sees
touches of pop elements and a more streamlined
overall approach to
the music. The instrumentation remains distinct, an there are still
random moments of grindcore in between more cohesive passages and so
I am constantly left wondering what will happen next. When music
becomes a seat of your pants adventure, you know it's worth investing
at least a little bit of energy.
The
ultimate struggle of this record is that as good as it is it doesn't
feel as unified as it should. Murphy has done some awesome feats of
guitar playing badassery and his compositional style is totally
unique, but when it comes to making a concept record a certain amount
of unity is to be expected. This is where Pseduo/Sentai
falls a bit flat. Rather than creating an album that feels like a
cohesive whole it feels like Pseudo/Sentai
use Enter The
Sentai to push boundaries with
every song. Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh, certainly in the
history of the band this stands as one of their most straightforward
records to date, but as we've established, Pseudo/Sentai
are one of the most
wonderfully diverse projects going right now. Consequently the band
is at their best when they are being as weird as possible and forcing
you to fall ever more deeply in love with every passing minute of it.
This
is a band who it can be difficult to properly get into. You can't go
into Enter The Sentai expecting
normalcy, because you're not going to get it. This is an example of
the band reigning it in, and even then they can't do it quite enough
for true greatness. This Colin Marston-produced release represents
some o the best musicians in the world and will never cease to be
exciting to me. I'm curious to hear them continuing evolving though.
As is the band remains fabulously bizarre but it leaves the huddled
masses unable to truly appreciate what is going on here.
Pseudo/Sentai represents
so much goddamn talent I just don't want it to become masturbatory.
As is, Enter The Sentai is
a release that hints at even greater things to come. While it lacks
the cohesive magic that defines the greatest concept albums of our
generation there is certainly more than enough for any fan of
progressive music to want to pick apart for days. Enter The
Sentai hints at a brave new
world and only the strongest will witness its inception.
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