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Album Details

• Artist: Ahleuchatistas
• Album: The Same and the Other
• Label: Noreaster
• Year of Release: 2005
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: rbidet on 2005-05-17

What exactly is the point of the Ahleuchatistas? Though the instrumental trio has impressive chops and super-tight group interaction, their brand of spastic punk/no-wave/fusion is designed for the smallest audience possible. Full of knotty rhythms that shift suddenly before ever settling into a coherent riff, The Same and the Other denies the listener anything to hang onto in the form of melody, groove, or even discord. And I'm not unhappy just because I didn't get a shiny, happy tune. The bands mastery of clattering ugliness is admirable, but uninvolving, and even the noise is boring.
Free jazz fans may enjoy the Ahleuchatistas sudden departures into formless skronk, but will undoubtedly find them too limited in their expressiveness. Fans of post or prog rock might like the snaky guitar lines but would probably find the themes less interesting than any number of their favorites. Hardcore fans might relate to the bands' wild abandon but should chafe at the pretentiousness. I know a good compromise is supposed to leave all sides dissatisfied but in the case of The Same and the Other, the Ahleuchatistas compromise between control and chaos is just not enough for anybody.
There's a quick if debatable test we can use to gauge the worth of stuff like this. Ask yourself: would women, homosexuals or black folks ever listen to this? If not, then the likely target demographic would probably be uptight, straight white guys, and how much fun is anything designed to appeal solely to them gonna be? A numbing record.

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