The Way We Are

This is the second effort by a band that cites influences as varied as La Monte Young, Boredoms, Aphex Twin, Dmitry Shostakovich, and Can, not to mention Friedrich Nietzche and trees. (Actual trees, that is — not a band called Trees.) As one might reasonably expect, the music is a crazy and at times inspired pastiche of sounds and textures: "Medman" features sounds of gently shattering glass and the chattering of electronic jungle fauna over a grinding, off-kilter rhythmic loop; "Saltwater Trails" starts out with either a Jon Hassell-esque treated trumpet or an equally distorted human voice (it's hard to say which), followed by spacious horror-movie atmospherics. "Shapeshifter" consists of tape manipulations and various grades of white and grey noise, and the title track ends the program with densely layered reverberations that ebb and flow like an early Steve Reich piece, followed by otherworldly howls, something that sounds like a UFO landing, and rattling chains — then suddenly everything smoothes out into a gentle ambience that changes colors and textures gradually for the remainder of the track's 34-minute length; drums and submerged vocals emerge briefly at the very end. Like the rest of the album, it's a deeply strange and oddly lovely listening experience.