KTL-S/T (Mego)

Man, is this album fucking great. Kind of like the best Sunn album ever in that it a: doesn't get bogged down in trying to be Metal, b: varies things up a lot among the tracks (almost a survey of things Sunn has done over the years), c: adds electronic elements to the drone, and d: the tracks actually go somewhere unlike a lot of Sunn's shit. The only thing that kind of bothers me a little is the fact that you can tell usually which of the two guys is doing what (guitar for O'Malley, electronics for Rehberg) and that because of this it doesn't feel completely synthetic. Like on parts of the first and second tracks, where the organic and the electronic are sometimes too distinct. When it does work though, especially on track four, it's fucking incredible. Better also, in my opinion, than the last Boris/Merzbow split (Sun-Baked Snow Cave), although that was great in its own right and I hear they have a third collaboration coming out sometime soon. It's kind of mind-boggling that these guys (Rehberg and O'Malley) can put out so much material that is of such consistently high quality, my hat goes off to both of them. I definitely want to check out the Denis Johnson-scripted performance that this was based on, the last thing I saw Pita do music for (a contemporary dance performance in Vienna during my study abroad there, with vocals by Tujiko Noriko) was so completely unique as was his show here in DC about a year ago, that I can't imagine it'd be anything but great.