Placer – Summer – Review

Placer

Summer (Dopamine)
by Tim Den

Before Andrew Schneider made a name for himself as Cave In and Scissorfight’s producer/engineer of choice, he was one-third of Barbaro, a barbed-wire sonic assault featuring dueling male/female vocals and melodies as haunting as the music was punishing. Take fellow Bostonians Garrison and transport them back to AmRep’s heyday and you’ve pretty much got Nolte. The attention to details in the arrangements of the music is only matched by the stellar performances of the musicians: Flailing about, dropping random accents everywhere, yet still as tight as a white knuckle. You can almost hear the GIGANTIC, knotted chords drip blood down upon every beat as Barbaro The Giant takes each step.

However, before the world could take notice of such an awe-inspiring beast, Barbaro broke up and Schneider quickly put together another Frankenstein. Placer, featuring ex/current members of Stompbox, Blue Man Group, Milligram, and a whole bunch more, takes Barbaro’s visceral beatdown even further. Baritone guitars! Just as tangled-yet-meticulous as Barbaro, but with more concentration on impact over technicalities, Summer is the sound of Jucifer’s volume lent to Isis’ delivery, sugar coated with (of course) Shiner’s sneaky melodies. As this is only Placer’s first release, one can be sure that there will be many more digits on this ogre’s richter scale.
(PO Box 3221 Beverly, MA 01915)