Sapat - Mortoise & Tenon

Sapat is sort of a black sheep among the trash-punk of recent Siltbreeze releases. It's a pretty clean-sounding record in comparison-- not to mention owing more to krautrock than punk or noise. But it still veers between extremes in unpredictable and often gorgeous ways, using instruments from country to classical as they quietly shift the face of rural America like a rust-belt expansion pack for Populous. "Phalange" is hazy ambient from solitary keyboard tones, while "Maat Fount" builds from a simple riff to inevitable full-band climax with droning strings and back-porch plucking. "Dark Silver" is a different band entirely, with huge ascending guitar riffs over witchy vocals and a tribal full-band throb. Common and comfortable ways to "jam", perhaps, but what Sapat add to it is subtle and striking, from the quivering bed of strings in "Root Bulb" to the skull-splitting phase tone that slices through the wah-pedal piddling of "Lovely & Free".