You are Under Surveillance
Substandard
2004
Rating: 7 frozen banana stands out of 10
As cheesy as it sounds, sometimes when I’m listening to Replicator the thought pops into my brain – this is the sound of breaking shit. It just seems like the perfect soundtrack for a good, old-fashioned freak out. Historically, this Oakland, California trio has drawn a lot of comparisons, praise and criticism for sounding a lot like Shellac, and it was mostly justifiable; but this sophomore LP (they’ve also released an EP between the two full lengths) finds the band very much coming into their own sound. Sure, the Shellac comparison is still there, but their current output is much darker and more frantic than anything that Albini & company have ever produced. Personally, I also hear a good chunk of Brainiac and Jesus Lizard buried in there as well, and nearly every song is rounded out with any number of oddball samples (one song in particular samples a recording of wank-off metalhead Yngwie Malmsteen freaking out on an airline flight, something that was floating around the internet for a while about a year back and was good for quite a few laughs). Very enjoyable.
