4 out of 5

Label: VHF Records

Produced by: VCO?

A blast of VCO styles, hunkered down into a compact, skronky presentation with several guests further fleshing out the group’s flexibility, Wisdom Thunderbolt is one of the band’s generally louder affairs, which makes the appearance of Matthew Bower and Chris Corsano seem just about right. But even these noisemakers aren’t contributing to the album’s true guitar freakout: that’s owed to Magik Marker rocker Pete Nowlan (and now-VCO member John Godbert), giving Thunderbolt something of a peak in the 4ish minute Sway-Sage’s noisy blast of drums and riffage, followed by the excellent, haunted reverb of closer What!!!, shimmering us restlessly to a conclusion.

Prior to that, there’s only really one wandering piece, here, and it’s notably the album’s longest: Rainbow Whirlwind is maybe the most “standard” track here, with a wave of drone and a wandering key diddly going on for 12-minutes, but it’s a very background track, almost purposefully non-disruptive, which sticks out against the otherwise pretty attention-demanding tunes. It has its place, but I wonder if scooting up even just to the exact middle of the disc might’ve balanced things out.

Because the lead-ins to this are perfect: the opening title track is a wall of random clatter that gives way to a pleasant, folksy outro; A Natural Fact (featuring Corsano) shifts from Pelt-y ragga to four-minutes of open-ended guitar plunkings, but erring towards a sound that’s stepping towards a conclusion – it’s open-ended but purposeful feeling. Order of the Broad Eraser has a Sunroof!-y digital edge, giving it some bite; this isn’t the Bower track, though, which comes next, in the blissed out Ochre Dust, sharpening the clatter of the opening tune into something very driving and emotional. This definitely makes sense as the centerpiece, if that’s what bumped Rainbow Whirlwind.

Lots of different sides of the VCO sound, but making for a very cohesive – noisy! – and satisfying listen.