Probably Smug.

While I hadn’t heard material from Balboa before, I certainly have been anticipating the split they were working on with Rosetta. My initial assumption is that they were bands with similar styles and visions, however after hearing Balboa for the first time, this was proven somewhat wrong. This is not to say however, that Balboa’s work on this split is weak by any means. In fact, it will likely make me seek out their other material. The very point of doing a Split album is yet again… successful.

Balboa is up first with their track, “Primitive Accumulation”, which is a quick and speedy track that starts out with paced guitar strokes that almost sound country western. However the final half of the track breaks into a punk induced frenzy complete with the punchy snare drum and raspy vocals. But Balboa has plenty of other tricks up their sleeve, as I was sure that Rosetta didn’t intend on sharing a split CD with a simple punk band.

Balboa’s work on this actually is quite post-rock, and the guitar work stands out especially. While the guitar is indeed distorted, it sounds intentionally simple and hollow enough to allow breathing room for the other elements in their song writing. The middle track, “Kaddish” has a slow and gradual build up for almost the entire duration of the song. Given that they’re sharing a split with Rosetta, this is not surprising, and is actually a rather bold move. The style of writing in their second track swells and dwindles in a rather appealing jam-band fashion making it a fairly good and enveloping listen.

Rosetta’s contribution on this disc is just as solid as I had expected. While vocally they’re almost non-existent, the music that they’ve chosen to represent them is perhaps louder than any verbal representation that could have been made in the first place. While they still are able to successfully retain their style and the atmosphere that was so very effective on their first album, some ideas from the previous album seem to have been expanded on.

Still using the theme of all things outer space, “TMA-1″’s title could likely be a Space Odyssey 2001 reference (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly). This track is completely instrumental, and possibly the softest song they’ve done yet. While it doesn’t completely retract the sludgy fills that are used in Rosetta’s song writing, there’s a lot of open spaces for intricately placed guitar melodies. If Rosetta’s members enjoy Explosions in the Sky, this would be the track that confirms it. Fortunately, it’s not exactly a knock off of Explosions in the Sky’s post-rock style, because it still utilizes elements from previous tracks such as guitar effects, barely intelligible sampling, and the looming bass that you damn near feel in the seat of your pants.

“Clavius” is the only track to feature Rosetta’s vocalist, Michael Armine. Besides the presence of vocals, what strikes me most about this track is the drum fills. Each measure has some strikingly different hits, without feeling too crowded or flashy. This is especially apparent during the first few minutes of the track as it picks up to its crescendo. With the vocals swirling around from right to left, this track has some of the most effective atmosphere out of anything Rosetta has recorded yet. Of course what it builds to is perhaps the biggest treat, maybe even on this entire disc. The piercing guitar melodies have a tendency to harmonize with an underlying layer of feedback throughout the song, and while this is effective in accomplishing Rosetta’s atmosphere, it also provides some structure to buld up to the crashing climax towards the end. If this track is a sign of things to come, I certainly look forward to them.

The final track, “Project Mercury”, is a collaborative track between these two bands, and another instrumental. When it comes to split discs, it’s rare to see the partnering bands join efforts and perform a song together. Perhaps this idea came about thanks to In The Fishtank 14 which featured ISIS and Aereogramme coming together for three songs.

It’s interesting to hear this track after listening to one band I’m familiar with, and another that I’m not so familiar with. It was easy to instantly recognize styles from the various members of Rosetta, but at the same time, I’m not always sure who was performing what instrument. This isn’t a negative thing though, and the song quite good. Once again, the big payoff of this track is crescendo, which builds to to crashing cymbals, double bass, and some more jam band melodic guitar.

While I can’t recommend this disc to everyone, if you’re a fan of either band, atmospheric sludge, or progressive / post-rock, it would be in your best interest to check out this brief, but solid listen.

You can find Rosetta’s Myspace page here, and Balboa’s Myspace page here.