LOCATION LOCATION

At first the idea of a new Ahleuchatistas album made me overflow with anticipation. The cover art and the title were different than what this amazing, crazy, noisy yet enjoyable don caballero on crack band had previously released, but I thought nothing of it. Turns out it was a dark omen of a change I would not appreciate. As I played the first song, I thought to myself "Oh well a crappy intro consisting of nothing but noise... I'm sure the rest of the album will be amazing" but I was wrong. Gone is the insane musicianship, gone are the quirky time and style changes, gone are the tension and release of alternating noisy and catchy part. This album is pure noise. And I'm not talking semi-intersting "a bunch of musicians improvising" noise, this is just noise. The production is crap, everything is overly distorted, it doesnt even sound like this is a band. This is more noisy electronics that might have been created at the very basis by actual instruments than anything remotely resembling rio/avant-prog. A complete let down, all in all the album has about 5 minutes of actual music spread across the various tracks of noise, and even when it does resemble music it doesnt resemble ahleuchatistas, its just repetitive crap. seems like the band wanted to be weird rather than being enjoyable. I can't imagine anyone actually getting into this album, and this is coming from a huge fan of their previous albums. I'd give this 0 stars if I could

Following Of The Body Prone, Ahleuchatistas underwent another change in personnel when long serving bassist Derek Poteat handed in his notice and Shane Perlowin elected to continue the band as a duo with relative newcomer Ryan Oslance on drums. Location Location is the first of two promised albums from this new configuration, and was recorded piecemeal over roughly two years.

Of The Body Prone saw two significant changes in Ahleuchatistas' sound; Shane Perlowin had cautiously started using effects pedals, and the music became rather more improvisational and open ended. These changes have come to full fruition on Location Location, and while there is still plenty to engage the listener it's a long way from the tightly composed and focussed music that came before it. It's essentially a series of ten sound collages on which it isn't always obvious whether a particular sound emanated from the guitar or the drums. In the absence of a bassist Shane Perlowin uses effects, in particular looping, to fill the gap, the results having audible elements of both Frippertronics and Fred Frith. All of which is fine and dandy, and it's good to see the band evolving and progressing, but the album would have been much stronger if at least a couple of tracks had been effects free guitar/drum pieces in the style of earlier work - Shane Perlowin is a remarkable guitarist but his excellent lead playing often either absent or buried between layers of sound. Similarly Ryan Oslance is capable of making Perlowin's compositions swing and the duo are capable of some breathtaking interplay - let's hope that we get to hear them doing what they do best on their next album.

If you enjoyed Of The Body Prone then Location Location is worth getting and persevering with. If you're a newcomer to Ahleuchatistas, start with one of the earlier albums. This is a perfectly decent contemporary avant rock album, but not a great addition to Ahleuchatistas' otherwise highly impressive discography.

Where has this once mighty band gone ?

This band had something good going on and established themselves as an exciting band on their previous albums. Love them or loathe them, but they were never boring. They created truly progressive rock with weird time signatures and melodies. Music that gave our brains a good work out. Challenging music.

Not any longer.

Ahleuchatistas has reverted back into a room full of dull electro stuff with some of their old time signatures included too. There are a lot of droning here too. This is not the Ahleuchatistas that challenged me on so many levels. Location Location is just a shadow of what Ahleuchatistas once was.

There are some good stuff here. Mostly when Ahleuchatistas visit their old haunts. A territory mainly ditched on this album. But this album is still a massive disappointment. I will revert back to playing their old albums and forget this one.

2 stars