FOR RESPECT

This is the debut album for the post/math rock band named after an SCTV sketch that was a parody of The Godfather. This particular album is somewhat chaotic and unorganized compared to their later albums. The music is full of tricky, ever-changing meters, is all instrumental and extremely heavy. The music is also based around the drummer Damon Che, who is known by the band's fans as "The Octopus" because of his style of attacking the drums with his arms flying around and looking like the animal he is nicknamed after.

The music throughout the album is quite hard and heavy, but surprisingly not dark like the band "Pelican". Most of the tracks here are rather short, seven of the 11 are under 3 minutes. On the first listen, the tracks seem to sound similar, but with subsequent listenings, they take on their own personalities. One of the longer tracks, "Got a Mile, Got a Mile, Got an Inch" features the audio track from the SCTV sketch that they were named after played under the music. The heaviness continues through most of the tracks and is only interrupted by a few less chaotic tracks, namely "Subdued Confections" (which is named after a line from another SCTV sketch) and "Well Built Road". Of course, these stand out initially because of the change of atmosphere.

The musicianship is quite amazing, but even at 37 minutes, this can seem like it churns along for quite a while to the novice listener. Because of this, it probably isn't the best of The Don's albums to start with. You should probably initiate your listening experience with "American Don" or "Don Caballero 2" which offer more of a variety. Their last two albums "World Class Listening Problem" and "Punkgasm" are a different style than the other albums and feature a revised line-up with some vocals among the tracks.

Rather thick and heavy, yet remaining mostly upbeat, this album needs to grow on you. Some listeners will appreciate the talent at work here, but most will find it too chaotic at the first few play throughs and some will just never understand it at all. I call it good, but non-essential for myself personally, knowing that better stuff is on the horizon. If you love heavy music, you will probably rate it higher, but I would rather have a little more variety. 3 stars.