The incongruities are plentiful on Cryptooology. In its mere 30 minutes of instrumental mayhem, Yowie devours the mind like a swarm of insects. Dissonant guitar tunings and boggling rhythms come together in elaborate arrangements to create an unlikely jazz-funk-mathcore that's as jarring as it is catchy. Yes, catchy.
That's not to say this record is for everyone; it may be the ugliest, most grating music you've ever heard. Your Jessica Simpson-loving friends will beg you to turn it off, but you'll be doing them a favor by turning it up. Yowie has given birth to a new musical idiom, and babies are seldom pretty in their first moments out of the womb. Does that mean you don't love 'em?
Guitarist Jeremiah Wonsewitz demonstrates a remarkably strong ear in the mixing and mastering skills he put to work for the record. Managing to pull a clean mix from such a tangle of odd harmonics was probably no easy feat, but every frequency is perfectly shelved and balanced, every ding and twiddle crystal-clear.
Your opportunity to thank Yowie for its contributions to musical science comes this Saturday at the band's joint CD-release party with the Conformists at Radio Cherokee (3227 Cherokee Avenue). Yowie's Skin Graft labelmates, Cheer Accident, are slated to join the festivities.
