4 out of 5

Label: Jagjaguwar

Produced by: John Congleton

While plenty of producers have made the jump from indies to the big time, glancing over John Congleton’s resume of the past few years is something, with Kimbra and Nelly Furtado sitting alongside the likes of mainstays like Decemberists and Xiu Xiu, with a constant stream of lesser-knowns in the mix as well.  And as with the progression of his previous band, Paper Chase, the groups / artists with which he’s been aligned have generally shifted from noisier to poppier; when his own tastes seemed to encompass layers over noise, 90 Day Men and St. Vincent popped up on his credit list – acts who needed to be heavy and loud but melodic at the same time.

This clued others in to that combo, which happens to be a short hop to beat-heavy radio-ready pop.  Ya dig?

And around that crossover point, we have Minus Story.

Couching the review by diving in to the producer, first, suggests that the band may have a lesser hand in their sound than the guy at the boards, but that’s very much not the case.  Checking out Minus’ earlier works is proof that they’d already had an appealing mash-up of instrument smashing riffery, bridged by lilting vocals and moments of uplifting delicacy; Jordan Geiger’s open-ended lyrics, imagining worlds tainted by ever-present, ever-mixed doom and hope, are affecting, and the group has a talent for landing on memorable melodies without resorting to attempts at catchiness, or verse-chorus-verse structures.  That’s all still present on My Ion Truss, heightened moreso by Congleton’s ability to layer it all without overwhelming, surfacing the quieter moments to stand even level with some of the badass noise committed elsewhere.

But: Congleton also comes to mind when considering the disc’s missteps: when attempting to combine more electronic elements with their style, Truss no longer has the sense of skillfully tamed chaos; it feels too controlled, too purposeful.  It doesn’t sync.  More often than not, the group’s energy overtakes those missteps, which generally only point the direction for a song to get going, but it’s enough to knock the immersion of the album past the midpoint.