CD Reviews

Mahjongg

Kontpag | K

By MIKAEL WOOD | January 22, 2008

2.5 Stars

These young Chicago soundhounds belong to the Windy City tradition of post-rock beatscaping established by Tortoise and the rest of the Thrill Jockey crew: on their second full-length (and first outing for K), they seem more concerned with instrumental textures and African-inspired polyrhythms than with anything as conventional as melody or songcraft. Yet Mahjongg are also a much scrappier bunch than their elder-statesmen scene mates, so Kontpab rarely attains (or seems interested in attaining) the sort of future-jazz gentility that has on occasion made Tortoise seem like the closest thing the indie world has to a Windham Hill act. They’re proud children of East Coast hip-hop and basement-show hardcore: their dance music derives groove from discord and release from anxiety, and their tools are choppy video-game keyboard lines and ramshackle cardboard-box rolls, not the satisfied purr of a vibraphone or a Fender Jazzmaster. It’s chaotic inside Kontpab, but a little liberating, too.

Mahjonggg + Get Him Eat Him + The Octagon + Crystal Understanding | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | January 24 | 617.492.BEAR

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