Brooklyn-based septet !!! (pronounced "chk chk chk" or any three repetitive sounds) is back with a third album, "Myth Takes," showing that they are still the coolest band to use punctuation for its name. For those new to !!!, they take a little disco freak from Chic, pump it up with some of Liar's "They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top" (2002) punk and use '80s house sound effects for good measure. Their music generally goes well with strobe lights, fog machines and throwing up in the bathroom in the back of a club.
"Myth Takes," though, has a much more refined sound (for this band at least), showing that the band has developed maturity along with its commercial success. As the strangely childish animated scene on the album cover suggests, the band has abandoned some of their dirty, muddy funk sound in favor of greener pastures. The band's cleaner, more focused tracks no longer sound over compressed or too big for the studio. With most bands, such a change would undoubtedly be seen as an improvement, but for many long-time followers of the band, this change may seem to be a compromise.
The aspects that made early !!! brilliant were often the imperfections. The group had catchy distortion in the lower end of the mix and a sloppy meter that seemed to walk around in drunken zigzags. When paired with African polyrhythm and singer Nic Offer's clubbed-to-death drawl, it all sounded amazingly natural.
Old fans don't have too much to worry about with "Myth Takes," however. The addition of space in the mix allows the band to add more variety to its sound. Able to produce songs with subtler mood coloring, !!! gives the tracks a laid-back intelligence. On some tracks, Justin van der Volgen's presence on bass has been reduced from the massive low-end domination it once had on "Louden Up Now" (2004) to a more balanced growl. This change is important, as the less weighty accompanying synths, percussion and vocals have much more room to breathe.
The new balance can be heard right away on the opener, "Myth Takes," a Spaghetti Western guitar romp through the mythical land of party hopping, with Offer's percussively whispered lyrics encountering eerie backwards guitar lines. It warms the ear nicely for "All My Heroes are Weirdos," a standout track featuring high-energy rhythm guitar over the impact of an African percussion-laden back beat. What then follows is the instantly catchy dance groove of "Must be the Moon" detailing Offer's sexual exploits, presumably on the New York club scene.
Nic Offer's vocals see a drastic style shift on "Takes." On some tracks he will sing falsetto melodies rather than his traditional subdued singing or whispering. For "Sweet Life," a comparably sparse showing for the band, Offer actually pelts out vocal leadings reminiscent of Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis. Further departing from their old tricks, the band then steers the track into an acid flashback via an art-rock electronic synth cascade.
"Bend Over Beethoven" takes the listener on a massive blip and bleep filled crescendo excursion straight from your favorite techno big beat club stormer, which must be nothing short of a tremendous spectacle to experience live. The track will certainly make most listeners glad that !!! decided to expand into different musical terrain.
Overall, the album will not disappoint, unless a listener happens to be looking for a complete rehashing of the old !!!. The instrumentation is its usual freight train of party energy, yet it takes detours to explore surprisingly progressive ideas. Drastic change can often be the demise of a commercial rock band, but if it produces the novel sound !!! has achieved with "Myth Takes," it is certainly worth all the risk.
