Customer Reviews

Receivers [Vinyl]

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Parts & Labor continue their sonic assault, but without quite the harmonies that made Mapmaker so palatable.

Still with great, complicated, hard-driving electronica sounds - if that's what floated your boat, you'll find it here. If you also miss the harmonizing that helped make Mapmaker, try "Stay Afraid" instead.

The new album from Brooklyn based band Parts & Labor is a consistently surprising effort, combining noise, prog and psychedelic rock, often with 70's heavy metal guitar backdrop, into an experimental mix that for the first half of the album often doesn't even seem like the same band from track to track. They also layer on some electronic flourishes and display a real talent for a pop hook, as with the irresistible "Nowheres Nigh." Things slow down a bit at the midpoint with "The Ceasing Now," but pick up again with the somewhat regal sounding ballad "Wedding In A Wasteland" and the prog rock workout "Prefix Now," both of which have an epic sweep about them. This is a pretty cool record, and having not listened to Parts & Labor in the past, this was an unexpected pleasure. Standout cuts: "Satellites," "Nowheres Nigh," "Mount Misery" and "Wedding In A Wasteland."