REVIEW: Aloha, That's Your Fire (Polyvinyl)
- Christina Apeles
An eclectic mix of styles meet in That's Your Fire and I don't use the word 'eclectic' lightly. Yes, there's rock, jazz, a bit of punk and a lot of drama. There is no real rhythm to follow, but a number, and just when you think a song is gonna settle into a melody, it changes. If Tortoise was looking for a band to complement them on tour, less synthesizer-driven, with more guitar, piano and high hat, Aloha would be a perfect opening act. To borrow from their press release, avant-garde does their music justice.
Free-jazz calls for improvisation, and with that, often a listener will wonder if the lyrics were even written beforehand. There's a constant unfolding with each track, it's difficult to catch where one song ends and the other begins. As with the early songwriting of Joe Jackson, where jazz meets rock or pop, sometimes the styles meet harmoniously; other times, in utter discord and that goes ditto for Aloha's music intermingling with their vocals. Their sound is progressive and the musical landscape they create is a canvas decorated with a myriad of moods, making each listening moment unpredictable.
