Junius

by Jack Rabid, The Big TakeoverThis is a massive sounding, beautiful noise album, which finds Junius even tighter, heavier, blasting to the stratosphere, and massaging every post-shoegaze fuzz-roar you've held in your head since Ride went all Small Faces. Dana Filloon's drums are clubbing; Joel Munguia's bass is Swervedriver-hard; and Mike Repasch-Nieves and Joseph E. Martinez's double-teamed guitars as bold and dense as 1984 Concert Cure and 1993 Chrome Catherine Wheel, perhaps these guys' biggest precedent with the same propensity to Pink Floyd/Talk Talk ambient noise cool-outs after the freak-outs. (Although Martinez's vocals are more American emo--good emo, that is). Of contemporary U.S. bands, only the last EP by Fresno's incredible Sleepover Disaster reaches this echelon of hefty brawn, effected-guitars concentration, and howling dog vocals, and the songs themselves are up to the maelstrom. Play this once -- you won't get it out of your head.