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Released on October 16, 2015 via Independent
Something of a curate’s egg this one – Pseudo/Sentai’s Bansheeface is a record you’ll either love or hate. I didn’t dislike it. It certainly has some cross-over appeal, and at its heart is a New York progressive rock band, pulling on those NYC musical influences we know oh so well – art-rock, math-rock, free jazz, even at times, rap. It’s certainly an album which is far too clever for its own good, with its obtuse song-titles and insistence on naming band members after colours (Red, Blue and so on – you know what colours are).
The Bible-length press release that accompanied the album is littered with grandiose statements such as ‘Bansheeface teaches us the history of another world, focusing on the vessel for the seed that destroyed it and the turmoil that surrounds her’ – well, it wouldn’t be prog without this kind of ambition would it? The band also state that the record took over five years to make and involved over 200 pages of sheet music, but as a wise person once said – “Yes, but is it any good? Or where they just all down the pub all that time?”
Whether it’s any good will depend on how you like your prog. If the Mars Volta approach of hysterical high-faluting, time-signature changing, multi-instrumental, concept-rock is your thing then, yes, you will. I’m not sure the Mars Volta comparison is a helpful one, but Pseudo/Sentai do reference their obvious heroes very closely and the album itself is a labyrinthine excursion into deeply strange sonic territory, much like those of the Volta lads. I also think that the record does go on at least two or three songs longer than it ought to have done, for even though there is a lot of imagination and inventiveness on display, for me it rather flagged in the last quarter.
That said, there is rather a lot to like here from Pseudo/Sentai: I was very taken with all the crazy time-signatures and arrangements of the songs. The duo at the heart of this madness Scott Baker (a.k.a. RED: lead vocals, programming, guitars) and Greg Murphy (a.k.a. BLUE: lead guitar, programming, additional vocals, composition) certainly can bang out tracks that are filled with wonder and surprises. I didn’t navigate the lyrics very successfully, but that’s not an issue, songs such as ‘Terraformed Transcendence, Immaculation’, and ‘Black Matter of Machinations’ really hit home when they get going, aggressive and adventurous by turns and ably abetted by Jeff Ebner and Jon Ehlers’ industrially pounding rhythm section. There’s playfulness too, from a Cardiacs style opener ‘Quantum Cardboard’, to The Residents style flavourings of ‘A Taster of Endangered’, indeed the latter could have easily dropped off The Residents’ Commercial Album.
Like both of those bands, Pseudo/Sentai seem to exist in a bubble, in their own world with their own particular rules and logic, and within that world, this album makes perfect sense. Scratch beneath the surface of it, and further layers of aural geology are revealed to further shake the senses. My senses were indeed shaken and, although I’d kind of got exhausted towards the end, I really enjoyed with monumental slab of off-beat prog and shall, no doubt, look forward to more from this unique band.
