I sometimes like music that floats effortlessly from drone to post-rockknob twiddling to electronic beats of fancy, all over the same album,and still makes it seem normal, like it isn't driven by some mentalillness or other after all. Twelve's First Albumis exactly that kind of record, custom designed to infect the brain andnever let go, and for the most part it accomplishes this noble, perhapsimpossible, goal. In quite possibly the trippiest framework since theself-titled For Carnation album of three years ago, Twelve moveeffortlessly from genre to genre without so much as a breath of freshair. Six.By Seven's Chris Olley is the brainchild of the proceedings,bringing along vocalist Tee Dymond and Six.By's drummer Chris Davis tofill it all out. The album starts with a twenty-four guitar drone trackof stunning but simplistic beauty before settling in to the slow coreepic "Talkin About." Clocking in at over eleven minutes — though itdoesn't ever feel like it — the track starts off quiet enough buteventually soars in two glorious crescendos of guitars and programmedstrings. A lovely, earnest beginning; then, it all just goes awry, butnot in a bad way. "Travelin' Light" is funk bass electronic madnesswith a bit of drone mixed in that sets the album on its ear, and thepolyrhythmic wonder of it all takes over half the record. The slow rockreturns on "Never Let You Go" and "Now," but this record belongs to thegrind and grit of the programmed tracks. It's a complete record,there's nothing missing, and a combination of the styles might havemade it all implode. Flawed though this may seem, it serves the recordperfectly for a solid debut that previous work merely hinted at if atall.samples:
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