Noumena

After the brutally intense debut 12" from the Drift, it was only logical that a full-length similar to the teaser would land shortly afterwards, much to the delight of post-rock fans everywhere. And on Noumena, the group certainly lives up to their name. Many of these compositions run in excess of six minutes, giving the group time to build up and tear down sonic explorations much like the experiments of motivational speaker/ambient producer/audio overlord Brian Eno, whose motivational creative index cards were responsible for not only the titles, but some of the textures the group explores throughout. Beautiful moments that are similar to the finest moments on Tortoise's masterpiece TNT run abound here, especially on the album's opener, "Gardening, Not Architecture." "Invisible Cities" flows gently from the album's opener to a dubbed-out jam session with percussion treatments that rival some of Brendan Canty's (Fugazi) finest work. Throughout the album the band remains focused and tight, patient enough to know when a composition should dive in full force and when to tease and gently unfold by itself. In a genre that often recycles its own ideas and eats its young, this is potent and fresh.