Staff Reviews

Cryptacize - Mythomania

Review by Luke Slater

Almost definitely better known for his work as guitarist and bassist in Deerhoof - and to a lesser degree The Curtains - Cryptacize is Chris Cohen's 'other' band. A band with as much an eye on the present and future as the past is often prone to falling into the traps of both, but this lot are a band who mostly know their own sound, what to do with it but not quite»

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cryptacize deal in the unforgettable melody, the forsaken chord and the extravagant sentiment. the surefooted and richly nuanced vocal arabesques of nedelle torrisi (a graduate in jazz history who has performed and recorded with the likes of xiu xiu, john vanderslice, saturday looks good to me amongst many others and released two solo albums) like a modern day freddie mercury or ronnie spector, strangely complement the guitar of chris cohen (of the curtains and formerly of deerhoof), which sounds like a maniacally sped-up a la les paul or staccato and funny like roy smeck or adolph jacobs of the coasters. syncopated drum corps rudiments and pit-orchestra rave-ups from michael carreira (a boston university music graduate) propel the songs with a refreshingly buoyant touch that never lapses into rock music cliches. there are also widescreen cinematic moments that take on a mournful and otherworldly pathos, like 'experiment in terror' by henry mancini, but with vocals by cambodian 60's pop legend ros serey sothea - or like arabic diva fairouz singing along to a psychedelic film score by popol vuh.
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