Retisonic

Lean Beat (Silverthree)
by Tim Den

From the ashes of Bluetip and Garden Variety comes Retisonic, a (formerly) two-piece that transforms its album title into effective practice. Utilizing lean arrangements similar to the greatly-missed Burning Airlines, guitar lines and bass hooks wound around each other like DNA strands, caressing and filling in voids to flesh out a melodic identity swollen with dissonant goodness. Like Mr. J. Robbins, guitarist/vocalist/art designer Jason Farrell somehow turns jazz theory and jagged DCore riffs into waltzes, blitzes, and everything in between. From the lopsided bop of “Malaligned” to the breakneck assault of “Unrepentant,” one gets the feeling that there’s an ocean of inner workings beneath all the ruckus… but ah, who gives a fuck when the “lean beat”‘s got you up against the wall, making sweet love to you like the sweet post-hardcore lovin’ fool you are? The money shot’s in the last half of “Filthy Way to Lose Yourself,” as a flurry of tighter-than-Joan-River’s-plastic-face cuts’n’accents come at you like locusts ravaging the harvest… should you bang your head or run for cover? Air guitar or air drum? Smash a window or work out mathematical equations? Answer’s “all of the above.”
(PO Box 3621 Fairfax, VA 22038)