FINERY OF THE STORM

This modest trio out of Tokyo have tweaked the Math sound in ways their bigger counterparts have not and with John Zorn's helping hand and some nice packaging, their 2006 debut was a breakthrough release that did for Mathrock what The Clash's early records did for Punk, if not in sales then in spirit. Clearly influenced by the best of both Math and Post rock - the mazes of Don Cab and dreamy loops of Tortoise - guitarist Soeda Yusuke, drummer Sugita Kohei and bassist Murakami Keita are also steeped in the cool sounds of West Coast jazz, elevating the tedious and often abrasive math style without destroying its heart. The result was a ten cut CD that you could actually play for a friend without the distant look of impending horror this kind of stuff may cause.

'Iron Ant' introduces Muddy World's formula of solid riff construction with sudden rushes of improvisation, the guitar and bass trading places, almost imperceptibly vining around each other. The musicians dance together as much as they play their instruments and it's an approach taken throughout the session, even Yusuke's breathy bossa nova vocals and near-Surf guitar lines, the Brubeck swing in seven minute 'Lilac', and proud meeting of Tango and garage jazz-fusion for 'Fever'. 'Dewfall' is inward and gentle, growing in sophistication from a humble arpeggio into Ipaneman-tinged strangeness and is paired well with 'Muddy Floor', unsettled wanderings of 'Apollo', almost Grateful Dead-like jams in 'Granada' and slow death of 'Neon'.

A divergence in the Math movement and an attempt at legitimacy for a dirty little genre, Muddy World are digging a bit deeper into the calculus of rock.