Sapat "Dark Silver"

What a surprise this song was in the middle of Mortise and Tenon, the debut full-length from Louisville's Sapat. "Dark Silver" (mp3) is the tightest, most consistently rhythmic song on a record chocked full of lengthy, stylistically varied prog workouts (another of which is written about here). Embodying and manipulating much of what was great about Ege Bamyasi/Tago Mago-era Can (the relentless groove, the slight nod to blues and more pronounced nod to jazz, the "live"ness), "Silver" slinks by in less than four minutes, finding a vamp and toying with it, but still keeping it within its predetermined range. Layering is how they work, and Sapat gradually incorporates elements into the mix that add to "Silver"'s groove, but fall far short of overpopulating it. The ultra-primitive drumming begins by hosting the song's ghostly, short and repetitive vocal, but both soon give way to a chorus that boldly struts for a moment like the Make Up's Ian Svenonius, before ceding back to the verse. Each time the verse returns, there's something new there, something threatening to derail the song and tip it over into Trout Mask rhythmic debauchery, which finally happens as the song battles its way to its end. Mortise and Tenon is one of the coolest and most consistently rewarding LPs I've heard yet this year---always forcing issues, never doing it too forcefully. It's being issued by somewhat legendary midwestern indie Siltbreeze (known for Sebadoh, Bardo Pond, and Guided by Voices 7"s, which means something in Indiana, and the first Times New Viking record).