30,000 Feet Tarantella

Spiky semi-experimental post-rock from Italy, the debut full-length by Diane and the Shell mixes spoken word passages and bits of airport-related found sound into an angular guitar-based aesthetic. Although some quieter passages can be found, like the antiphonal piano and guitar interplay in the last of three tracks named only with a half-dozen or so backslash strokes and the genuinely pretty violin solos in "Suite for Bancomat," the majority of the album consists of math rocky guitar riffs laid over Tortoise-like drums. Unfortunately, those quieter passages are the most consistently interesting part of 30.000 Feet Tarantella; most of the rest of the album sounds like the work of a bunch of Gastr del Sol fans with a paucity of original ideas, until the Sonic Youth-aping "Scandinavian Landing" attempts to end the album with a bit of apocalyptic noise. There are interesting ideas at work on 30.000 Feet Tarantella, just not quite enough of them.