Cousins of Reggae is a duo from Montreal, one of whom is Blake Hargreaves, a guy who keeps busy in the underground noise scene and is also half of the excellent noise duo Dreamcatcher. This is basically a guitar and drums thing, but a seriously dense and blown out cacophony of drums and guitar, and a whole bunch of sounds that come from sources unknown. There are even unintelligible vocals in the mix. I’d say this falls somewhere between Royal Trux’s “Twin Infinitives” and the noisiest Harry Pussy stuff.

I think what keeps me coming back to this is that there seems to be some deep logic underlying all the squall, but it’s hard to decipher. Now and then you get a definite guitar riff of the caveman/early Royal Trux type or an almost math-rocky rhythm, but any coherent music usually disappears into the sonic blizzard. I feel like if I keep staring, a master plan is going to pop out at me like those 3-D fractal posters. How much of this is really planned and practiced, how much is just free improv, and how much is a figment of my imagination? Cousins of Reggae definitely blur those lines, but that’s what makes this album so much fun. And it’s one hellacious racket.

CDR on “Our Mouth” Records

http://ourmouthrecords.com/catalogue.html

http://www.myspace.com/cousinsofreggae