Forget Cassettes - Instruments of Action

Immediately upon hearing that Forget Cassettes was a two piece consisting of guitar and drums, I was skeptical. All of the other bands I've heard that fall into this category (White Stripes, Lightning Bolt) make some interesting music but it gets repetitive and somewhat predictable after awhile. After all, there's only so much you can do with the guitar / drum combo. Or is there? As with alot of my preconceived notions, I have been proved dead wrong. Forget Cassettes merge guitar, drums, AND Rhodes keyboards (see? the variable switches things up) into a stop-start flurry of sound. Shrewd guitars intertwined with a full frontal onslaught of drums, mixed into minimal hushes of constrained anticipation. A perfect example of this is "Ms. Rhythm & Blues" - rolling, building guitars stop short of an explosion at the chorus, then settle down until exploding back. "Bruce Wayne" starts off no-bullshit with big guitars and the unrestrained scream of vocalist Beth Cameron. This epic journey of rockness continues throughout the majority of the album - "Instruments of Action", "Accismus", "Like Tiny Swords" (etc) all draw the listener along through the starts, stops, swells, and outbursts. However, the album does have it's moments of not-so rock that help to break up the pace of the album. "German Girls", "A Legacy's Demise", and "Talking Big" don't stop the album short, but simply provide a breather and showcase the diversity this duo is capable of. Instruments of Action is one hell of a strong debut. The songwriting is intelligent, it provides a compelling listen, and it's great to throw the devil horns to. Fortunately the lyrics and vocals are just as strong as the music, a factor that most typically ruins a good thing. This is one of those albums that flirts between being commercially accessible with it's big riffs and being adored by the underground for it's indie-emo-math-rock sensibilities. [www.forgetcassettes.com]