Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyle

This was a recommendation from one of my loyal readers. To say he has an eclectic taste in music is an understatement. You could say this album personifies what he likes in his music; to be challenged by extremes, of pitch, of tempo, of decibel levels, but ultimately to be rewarded through revelations of beauty and power within the aural chaos. I'll be honest and say that the first listen through i was struggling, i'm not the biggest fan of noise rock. sure i love sonic youth, the pixies, dinosaur jnr but the more extreme purveyors of this craft ( black flag, the melvins, white zombie ) i never really got. This is an album of severe pitch changes, tempo changes, and alternate tunings. It is a sonic youth style wall of noise in some parts, it is a stratching, screaming, wailing, teeth grinding, fractured mess in others. But out of this comes some great music, songs such as my 'kimono' and 'time isn't on my side' reward the listener for braving past the initial onslaught of distorted jangly guitars in opening track 'Thermal Pleasure'. It's a thumbs up from me which means that now i have no reason not to brave the remaining albums of the recommendation list. If they are all as good as this then i am a happy man, but i'm worried about the next one already. very worried