As we move towards the end of 2011, here’s a worthy record that we overlooked the first time around earlier this year. Lovingly pinched from The Obelisk: As they approach 15 years of existence in 2012, hard-touring Los Angeles trio Totimoshi return to the heavy crunch of their earlier albums on their sixth full-length, Avenger.
2008’s Milagrosa – produced by Helmet’s Page Hamilton and Toshi Kasai (the Melvins, Shrinebuilder) and released on Volcom – found Totimoshi heading in a more melodic direction, and while Avenger, which is out on forward-thinking underground imprint At a Loss Recordings, keeps some of that complexity, guitarist / vocalist Tony Aguilar’s tone is beefier and the three extra years of road-time he and bassist / backing vocalist Meg Castellanos have put in with drummer Chris Fugitt (who debuted with the band on Milagrosa) shows in the fluidity of their arrangements.
Much of Avenger, which was produced by Kasai alone, traffics in the thoughtful and rhythmic melancholy for which Totimoshi have become most known, but the band are adventurous as ever as well, pushing forward into more open-toned sprawl here and there and going as far as to include guest appearances from Dale Crover (the Melvins, Shrinebuilder), Brent Hinds (Mastodon), and Scott Kelly (Neurosis).
The latter two show up on the stylistically out-there closer ‘Waning Divine’, which is Totimoshi’s most experimental excursion to date, trading in the comparatively straightforward and almost punk-ish drive of earlier cuts like the opening title-track (which follows a brief intro) or its chorus-centric follow up, ‘The Foot’,for a solid six-and-a-half-minute build capped by a solo from Hinds that’s well placed as the payoff for the whole of Avenger.
All told, the record is just 42 minutes, but in that time, Totimoshi manage to work in a variety of moods. The aforementioned ‘Avenger’ is about as pure as Melvins-worship can get (the two bands have toured together extensively over the years, and Aguilar techs for Buzz Osborne, so it’s an influence they come by honestly), and as Aguilar delivers the lines, “I have punch/I have kick/I will slash and wear your skin/I will teach you not to look at me” and threatens a feast of hemlock tea and strychnine meat in his characteristic snarl, the aggression is well met by his guitar work, Castellanos’ bass and Fugitt’s drumming.
Immediately, Avenger presents the intensity of Totimoshi at their best – which is perhaps the element most absent from Milagrosa and the source of any comparison to the band’s older material – and from there, the band is able to capitalize on that momentum however they see fit.
Continue reading: Totimoshi, Avenger: Time Spent in Paradise | The Obelisk.
Courtesy off JJ Koczan / The Obelisk
Tags: Album of the day, At A Loss Recordings, Avenger, Chris Fugitt, JJ Koczan, Meg Castellanos, The Obelisk, Tony Aguilar, Totimoshi
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2011 at 3:02 pm and is filed under 2011, Album of the Day, Roadburn Recommended . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thanks for this really detailed review JJ. We much appreciate this, as well thanks Roadburn for putting our album up for people to listen to.
For the record, Dale Crover does not play drums on our album, Chris Fugitt wrote and performed all drums. Dale does the drunken opening “intro” track as well as backing vocals on the song “Snag” – of which he actually performed using a headphone as a mic.