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Creating a montage of rustic alt-rock tones with art-pop incisions
and trippy folk windmills, Ohio-based quartet HotChaCha displays
the anxious energy of The Kooks balanced by the coasting Zen-like
sensibilities of Gomez. The band's latest release The World's
Hardest Working Telescope And The Violent Birth Of Stars from
Exit Stencil Records borders on the esoteric with a pendulum of dissonant
echoes moving through the frames. There is a garage band broiling
in the pumping style of drummer Lisa Paulovcin and bassist
Heather Gmucs as the serried psychedelics sewn by keyboardist/guitarist
Mandy Aramouni surround the tracks in volatile mists reminiscent
of Joy Division, and lead vocalist Jovana Batkovic melds
the lyrics into the atmospheric reels becoming an integral part of
the glazy plumes and jelly-like fissions.
The resonating guitar effects throttling "One Thousand Pillows
Soft" have a U2-stylized flurry, which traverse into a
field of psychedelic rock rivulets along "Ticket Away From Prague"
as the rumbles in the rhythm section produce a heavy drooping in the
underbelly of the tune. The punk-rouched propulsions of "Baby
Mammoth" inject a pogo-flexed bobbing, which wilt into a sedate
drifting along "Hookers Deserve A Lifetime Achievement Award."
The raveled chord movements of "Circus Girl" infuse waves
of intense teasing along the verses which become more bendable and
mutable across the glazy inflections and sleek planes of "Ticket
Stub." The avant angles in the chord refractions which noose
"Organ Grinders Ball" brand irregular incisions which coast
into a slippery traction along "Bob Has A Better Cow," while
the marching beats of "French Fried" are entwined with the
bristling atmospherics and roving swells.
HotChaCha are more polished than a garage band, and yet they are
not quite finessed enough to lose their rustic swagger or dissonant
clamors and angular inflections. There is an artsy feel in their tracks
that delves into lexicons of esoteric soundscapes and reverberating
psychedelics. It is music for those who don't walk on the path of
the straight and narrow but prefer being skewed to the side and off-centered.
-Susan Frances
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