3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: R3my Boy (Pili Coït tracks; mastered by); Lucas G. Bickford (Yowie tracks; engineered and mixed by)

When last we left Pili Coït, I was kind of criticizing them for being not exactly less than the sum of their parts (with “parts” being defined by the band-hopping histories of their members), but also not more than, and also not… equal. Rather that you could hear / see the parts, in lieu of an application. As the almighty arbiter of How To Be a Great Band, I admittedly would not have diagnosed grandly expanding one’s roster, but that’s what PC did on this split: adding in the six members of Les Exocrines* and bloating the call sheet to eight people, and list of instruments to tote around to include a cello, and tuba, and so on. However, this arbiter was lacking in some wisdom, as this move worked gangbusters: PC’s three tracks on “Split” are the best of their work yet, retaining the Made in Mexico art-punk vibes while combining with a doomy klezmer and groove backing, cycling between modes of quirk and menace equally and impressively. Their music now sounds like that of a band, inspired instead of maybe trying to sound as such.

The other part of this split is surprising, though, in how it transmutes a usually standout act – Yowie – into something adjacent to what I was knocking PC’s last album for: a bit of superficiality. Drummer Defenestrator has roped in new guitarists for three live tracks, and… well, to my well-worn instrumental mathrock ears, this is stuff I’ve very, very much heard before. I’m jaded, I know, but I checked out the bands from which the new members came, and I guess I’d say something similar: it’s good stuff, but not a super iteration on other stuff out there. Is there skill on display? Absolutely. But it’s “standard” noodling, and not really as instantly impressive / notable as almost any of Yowie’s past output, with the muddy live recording sound not helping to add any punch. Maybe in a studio and with a full album to add some intentionality, this version of the trio will sharpen their sound a bit.

*There’s no Discogs history there, although I can find a couple of members individually; perhaps this is a newly formed collective, specifically to back PC?