Skull Kontrol
Deviate Beyond All Means of Capture CD - Touch & Go

Fresh from the recent grave of the Monorchid came Skull Kontrol, a band whose life span can be measured in the space of a calendar year. Indeed, Deviate is a posthumous release, but an exciting and arguably pivotal one regardless. Perhaps brevity is the key with each successive Chris Thomson project. It would seem as though the guy is as physically unable to conjure up filler as he is to make any of these great bands last. Joined here by former Monorchid bassist Andy Coronado (this time on guitar), Kim Thompson (Delta 72, Cupid Car Club), and Brooks Headley (Universal Order of Armageddon, Young Pioneers), Skull Kontrol’s contribution to the world of recorded music takes the form of eight succinct tracks clocking in somewhere around twenty minutes. In many respects, their sound continues where the Monorchid stopped short: angular, acrobatic guitar flailing over a rock-solid foundation of thumping bass and drums, Thomson wailing on about something or other, and before you can say "presto" the song is over and you’re halfway through another. Not quite as pleasantly surprising as the Monorchid was (in respect to its predecessor, Circus Lupus), but Kim’s vocals (recalling the archetypical Grape Juice Plus) add a nice touch and enough of a twist to give this a personality all its own. Endorsed. (JL)