Here, it's all tranquil air. It's math-rock at its square root, layered with guitar and syncopated bass that create geometrics of sonic intensity. Damon Che's explosive drumming centers and showboats the band's polyphonic experimentalism. Over the last few albums, Don Caballero has evolved from anxious noisecore into a new playfulness. It's engaging, but the sense of experimentation and spatial jamming starts to lose its minimalist punch as the CD progresses.
Octant is a technophobe's worst nightmare.
Octant's live appeal, which is largely visual and visceral, is almost entirely lost in the translation. It is hard to get around the fact that the band's attractiveness lies as much in how they perform as in what they sound like. Car Alarms and Crickets is at its best when the band allows their pop sensibilities to rise above what would otherwise be just so many interesting electronic sounds. Well, 'fore our lily whites knowed him as an infamous, rhymin' luvva of wimins, he made his livin' as a MC, DJ, and recordin' artist. Movietone's spindly, intuitive music conjures up the soundscape imagery its name implies.