4 out of 5

Label: Touch and Go

Produced by: Steve Albini

The only real problem here is that after beating their surf-sci-fi rock into the ground for every last Dick Dale variation possible, and after having gained and lost members, and after sending off disciples under the same band moniker to further drive home that there’s no new Man or Astroman concept left under the sun… the only real problem on A Spectrum of Infinite Scale is that that ‘band’ that carved out their own genrefied corner no longer really exists.  So there’s no core identity on the album.

…Which apparently has freed this identityless entity up to make one of the best albums issued under the Man or Astroman name.  You’ll recognize the musical moves here, from Chicago post- and math-rock new and old: Trans am krautrock, Don Cab noodling and humor in the songtitles; Slint stop / starts.  And then that’s injected with some inspired touches of surf rock memories; sciency sound effects (if we can call a recording of a dot matrix printer that…) without the belabored movie sampling, book-ended by some extremely pleasingly out-there sound experiments at the disc’s opening and close, all wrapped together for a damned seamless, tight listening experience, given a meaty mix by “Dr. Stephen Albini.”

Without knowing this as Man or Astromam, id be hard pressed to hear the touches of sounds’ past buried in the mix.  And without kbwiibg this as them, id consider this a damn fine cut and paste of various instrumental rockers’ styles, impressively stitches together.  Knowing this as man or astroman, it’s a bit weird to think of a ___ year old group presenting a disc that ultimately feels sort of hollow, but by thr same tokeb, its exciting to think that something has allowed them to throw off the sjackles and reinvest theejergy that prpsuxed their best recordings.

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