Friday, March 14, 2008

Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works - CD Review


The Dillinger Escape Plan are who they are and there is no mistaking that. Like a dietary supplement, their music is a vital necessity to my creative well-being. A monthly dose is usually all it takes (unless I have been unduly exposed to the mundane) to liberate bits of conformed energy trapped in the recesses of my psyche. Their expression adjusts my alpha and delta brainwaves so that I may continue unobstructed on this creative path at this time and in this way. So, I am thankful for their new release to freshen up my supply.

“Ire Works” is their third full-length release and proves to a more a little more musical in their evolution. As always I enjoy their sporadic use of meters and even the tunes in 4 are cool -

Decoding Dillinger – this is how I counted it anyways:

Fix Your Face - 6/4, 4/4 all over the place
Lurch all – 7/4, 9/16, 7/16, 3/16, 6/8, 14/8 +
Black Bubblegum - 4/4, 2/4
Sick on Sunday - 4/4 underlying, some deviation
When Acting As A Particle – 6/8, 9/8, 3/8
Nong Eye Gong – 10/8, 8/8, 2/8, 4/8
We Acting As A Wave – 11/8, 6/16 (eighth triplets), 13/8, 9/8, 4/8
82588 - mixed
Milk Lizard – 4/4, 5/16 +
Party Smasher – 8/4, 4/4, ?/16
Dead As History - 4/4
Horse Hunter – 8/16, 10/16, 4/4, 8/8, 18/8, 6/4, 5/8, 13/8
Mouth of Ghosts - 4/4, 6/8


They are still crazy as every …… or are they? Sometimes it is hard to tell whether or not a band’s initial energy that liberated them from the creative confines of the established still continue to fuel them creatively or they in fact are trapped by the machine they have made with it. As crazy as I might sound, there is a certain “safeness” to album. Who knows what pressures will do to the creative process, there are fans and contracts to keep, but I wouldn’t know anything about that. With the original energy that brought this band about, I would expect/hope just a little more deviation from their proven success. Although they are a little more musical and steady (4/4) on this effort, but maybe I was hoping for something a little more bizarre that worked. Anyways, they still blaze across the boundaries of the bar lines (as in notation, not in the club) liberating minds across the globe. Can’t complain about that, now can I? I can only hope that they continue on and don’t get too safe in their groove.

From beyond the barlines,
-Countess BetZe
OddTimeObsessed.com

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