In this case, the CD opens with "Breech," which has a promising beginning with a nice moody piano intro and Hozoji Matheson-Margullis's passionate vocals. About a minute in the music has drifted to guitars alternating between a higher pitched riff and power chord grinding; everything still sounds okay, although the vocals have started to drift from passionate to more strained shouting. Around the 3 minute mark is when things start to go downhill though, as the song starts to drift through random ideas and wailing and only a few highlights to really grab onto. If the song were condensed a bit I'd probably like it better, but 6 minutes of what might as well be stream of conciousness grates on me a bit. (Yes, that's right, a 9 minute stream of conciousness track that wasn't written by a prog band...)

Fortunately, the CD turns itself around with more cohesive structures, cool grooving riffs, and tighter drumming--really, look no further than the next two tracks, "Made With Love" and "Unspeakable Truths" for some pretty solid music with a way bigger sound than you might expect from just two people. Hozoji still spends a bit too much time screaming for my tastes, but maybe it's more a matter of the production values. The CD has a raw, very unpolished feel, a bit like they just set up a few mics in their basement and hoped for the best. (Incidentally, I seem to recall that one song actually was recorded in their basement, although I don't have the liner notes in front of me to check.) The best comparison I can think of for the sound and production quality is Chevelle's debut "Point #1." Don't get me wrong, it gives a different tone to the instruments than the slick production of stuff on major labels (or even indie labels who want it, for that matter), but somewhat at the expense of the vocals.