5 out of 5

Label: Coeur sur toi

Produced by: Kevin Galland (recorded by)

There should be something more complicated to say, but I think instrumental rock duo Mouche-Miel have actually nailed the balance so many similar acts are after: be silly, unrestrained, and rock, but not so silly that you feel like you can’t listen without a permanent smirk, or such that the album isn’t allowed to execute its rock with sincerity; be unpredictable in a way that adds spice to the perfect beat drops, but not so wayward that this become no-wave or abstraction: we’re here to get our mathy, headbanging jollies on, and feel good about it.

So MM, on sophomore album Tabasco Flash, do the thing on which countless others have misfired, gifting us ten tracks that never lack for showmanship, and somehow pummel and pummel while not overwhelming our sensitive lil’ ears. Choosing “culinary stories” as an inspiration / theme – there’s some of your silly – tunes dedicated to Espresso Martinis or Pavlova (or however they make one feel; or some story involving them; etc.) unravel at a rather breakneck speed, confirming the group’s touring opening spot for Meshuggah. And yeah, there’s absolutely some metalcore in there, but also a lot of djent chugga chugga, and then also a kind of Foetus-like embrace of kitschy production to give us some cheeky keys, or kitchen-sink production, the overall ramshackleness like a handshake between nonsequitor warriors Oxes, the squall of the aforementioned Meshuggah, and the stop-on-a-dime changeups of Converge or Keelhaul. This should overwhelm the listener, as Tabasco Flash does not really let up overall, but the intelligence of the design is hidden behind the earth-shaking hooks and massive melodies: every song builds in some room, however brief, that lets you appreciate all the bluster, and across the entire album, songs prove to have relative highs and lows, even if in isolation every track seems to rock out to an extreme.

This is simply one of the tightest instrumental rock releases I’ve heard, where the band’s identity is their own, and the line between when the group is just playing around versus delivering more intense fare is fuzzy enough that the sides blend into one. Not a moment of this lags.