Rating: NNNN
Vancouver’s Fond of Tigers keep ideas flowing at a good clip on their masterful third full-length album. Post-rock guitars march and swirl courtesy of head honcho, Stephen Lyons, free-jazzy trumpets squeal, two drummers drum in polyrhythmic glee. The mostly instrumental septet explores new, more accessible territory on standout Vitamin Meathawk, on which Sandro Perri adds gentle, husky vocals.
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Another guest appears on the album’s most challenging tune, the seemingly formless Grandad, featuring Mats Gustafsson on a noisy sax that screams its way over anarchic guitar- and violin-string scraping until all goes quietly ambient seven minutes in. That’s the beauty of Fond of Tigers: they’re equally adept at loud and soft, cacophony and harmony, traditionalism and experimentalism. This album showcases that best.
Top track: Vitamin Meathawk
Fond of Tigers play the Garrison September 24.
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