Remember the days when you and your buddies would get together in your mom's basement to play Dungeons & Dragons? You'd clear the table of Radical Software magazines, set your game up and to make everything perfect you'd put on some King Crimson, Yes, or Goblin records. Don't remember those days? Well that is because you are a twenty-something year old hipster downloading all of your music from your favorite torrent site and reading this website and you weren't seventeen years old in 1972. Don't worry though because the new Crime in Choir record will surely make you wish you were around then.
Trumpery Metier is seriously everything you want in a modern day prog album. Crime in Choir, along with Zombi, are bringing buzz-saw synths back into vogue. Nary a vocal is to be found on the album, which is just how it should be. The instrumentation throughout the album is splendid, but it is the sporadic use of the saxophone that puts the icing on the cake.
On prior releases Crime in Choir had the drumming of Zach Hill of Hella fame backing them. This is the first release without him and they are much stronger because of it. The rhythm section on this release is absolutely solid and brings more to the table than on prior releases. The only modern day drummer I could say that would play well with this band other than Tim Soete would be Greg Beadle of The Cancer Conspiracy.
There are plenty of standout tracks on the release. "Complete Upsmanship" is the first track to grab your attention. It is a hair over three minutes and is the perfect track to get you ready for "Land of Sherry Wine and Spanish Hours" which clocks in at over seven minutes. Both tracks highlight Crime in Choir at their very finest. "Measure of a Master" and "Octopus in the Piano" are also great tracks but the title track, "Trumpery Metier," is the best on the record.
So go ahead and pick up Trumpery Metier and relive the early 1970's out in 2006. It's sure to go well with a good game of Magic the Gathering, a couple hits of acid, and a big bottle of O.J.
