3 out of 5

Label: ugExplode

Produced by: Bill Harris (recorded by)

Even accounting for their ten year pause, The Flying Luttenbachers have quite a long history… and a litany of former band members and varying configurations from across the years. There have logically been some stylistic shifts across the years, as things have leaned more jazzy or more experimental or more metal, but it’s been tied together by the far-ranging skills of coraller Weasel Walter, whose playing / composition approach is often tell-tale, with the Lutes incarnation, in my ears, typically more “rollicking” than his many other projects – there’s something to it being rooted in improv jazz (go back and listen to that first disc) that’s seemed to inform even when the band has been at its most extreme.

And now, X years on, in another refigured trio, Weasel and the Luttenbachers sound… brand new. Or rather: they sound a bit more like they’re pulling from other inspirations than previously, including some sources they have undoubtedly inspired. Whether intentionally or not, with a move to Chicago from New York, the ongoing narrative of FL is recast in tone, somewhat: I’d say that the time before their hiatus was marked by chaos, translating the melting pot of influences that started the band; post their hiatus, the band has been riffing on itself, not unexcitingly, bringing the “story” of their songs to breaking points. Much of Mythos 2 – while still very expansive, and fast-paced – feels like it steps away from that a bit, and is maybe why this is being released kind of on the sly before the first full release from this version of the band. About half of the record sounds more like some post-metal peers (Dysrhythmia; Keelhaul), and casting back to 90s no-wave and mathers like Slint, Dazzling Killmen, or even U.S. Maple. This can all be related to what came before, but it’s a different approach – rock is the underlying sound.

The back half of Mythos 2 sounds closer to “classic” Luttes, in the sense that it’s very much momentum based, and a bit less structured – while this apparently is not improvised, it carries that spirit.

The mix, from Weasel, is also pretty chill: this could sincerely pass as a post-metal instrumental math band; it’s very palatable stuff. That’s not meant to be a bad thing! I take it as a band proving themselves to themselves, and finding their inner Flying Luttenbacher, to be more fully unleashed on a full-length album.