This split cd from two Minneapolis sound units explores a format that perhaps more splits should, a third of the album from each band solo, then a third of the two playing collaboratively. The collaborations here, either categorized as or played under the name of Awesome!, contain some of the disc’s best music, though the selections from both bands are far from the proverbial chopped liver.
Ova! are a duo whose prog-influenced riffage contains nods to both the light (angular riffs and peppy rhythms) and dark (sludgy drone and bludgeoning attack) sides of their inner musical psyches, all recorded with enough grit to ensure that things never run too smoothly. Ova! may not do quite as many musical summersaults as some of their proggy peers, or cram quite as many notes into each minute of music, but their eight tracks here are a pleasing, if not overly exciting, ruckus.
Happy Mother’s Day I Can’t Read take a different approach, eschewing the rock and roll in favor of some fat analogue grooves. It’s a relatively simple recipe, noisemaking that relies on the qualities of its sounds rather than any gimmickry or overpowering sonic assault (not that the aforementioned are necessarily bad, mind you). The world these songs inhabit is an 8-bit one, they could be mangled video game soundtracks or the gasps of a choking Atari.
The last five tracks on the disc, those which feature the collaborative efforts of both bands, offer some interesting interplay left untouched on the album’s previous songs, and the melding of the two different approaches results in some nicely fried improv. A saxophone even finds it’s way into the mix, another surprise in an already unpredictable stew. In the end, this cd won’t be a defining release in Freedom From’s catalog, but, like any good college recruiter, Matt St. Germain knows the importance of fielding talent from his own backyard, and the exposure could do both bands well.
