All Your Science

Busting up I-40 at 90 mph with All Your Science "Just Go" at my stereo's peaked volume, I came to conclude three things; I have yet to find a system loud enough to properly credit this song's ability; I should stop listening to this song while driving; and that this is one of the best break-up songs ever conceived.

Pressing the envelope of alternative music in every direction, "Just Go" doesn't follow the usual songwriter formula for relating listeners to heartbreak by dressing up 80 beat per minute minor chords with a sob story, instead it transfers emotion on a chemical level, triggering senses that usurp the mind's perceptions of lyrics and meanings and diffuses eerie heart pounding anxiousness directly into the chest. The hypnotically grinding current of vintage electric guitar and thunderous drum splashes strike a delicate parity with the softly delivered melody of Lu Lubenstien's despair drenched shoe gaze vocals. Like lightening to thunder, you feel the angst first and you understand its meaning after.

The note grinding build-ups and uncontrolled free-fall washouts commanded by front girl Lu Lubenstein's vintage axe and Z-Man's sizzley drums combine for a mesmerizing arrangement that deftly communicates the song's raffish nature, but the arrangement of this song is just the beginning of the All Your Science alternative vex marking. The readily noticeable DIY recording emphasizes lo-fi fuzz, unkempt reverberation, and over driven..., well everything. But from the chaos, All Your Science manages to project the grainy imperfect character of the recording as the central esthetic, not a distraction from it.

This blemished character is replicated throughout the album, which in fantastic minimalist form is dubbed Vol. 1, and it quite successfully suggests an alternative expectation for recorded music. Moving in a "less is more" direction, this album challenges the norms for what is accepted and even desired in a recording. As with the suspenseful flowing emotion of "waves,” the varied inflection of its single repeated note would likely disperse into the predicted if not for the crowded tone of over driven signals and out of phase microphones. But like an intriguing antique image, we stare in to it longer to see what may be hidden.

As an added measure, All Your Science thumbs their nose at establishment by self-releasing their spray-painted album and giving them away for free at shows, which are predominantly home grown house parties. All Your Science walks the road less travelled and makes it look appealing. I hope that at the end we find a stereo loud enough give "Just Go" the justice it deserves.

All Your Science's next study on the effects of sound wave modification on human beings will be held at Bull City Headquarters in Durham on 4/18 as part of the Duo-Fest III line-up.

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