To say that this album is mercifully brief is not to say that it's bad. On the contrary, it's really very...um...well, let's just say this: If
Fred Frith played a Gameboy controller and sampler instead of guitar, and if you kept him awake with Dexedrine for five nights running and then put him on-stage in front of an audience of panic-rock psychopaths, the result might sound very much like this.
Pleasure Horse is a guy who takes the glitch-core idea to its ultimate logical extreme, deploying beats but never letting them lapse into anything approaching a groove (actually, he does relent a bit on "Pusch da Busch," which would still probably sound arrhythmic in any context but this one), pushing everything as fast as it can go and switching sounds and textures faster than you can say "Stockhausen." Needless to say, this music is not for everyone. It may not really be for anyone, frankly. But if you give it time to sink in you'll find yourself getting drawn into the thready pulse of "Laitbait" or maybe the subtle (very subtle) melodies that poke their heads up briefly on "Treasure." Just make sure you put your cat in a different room and get enough sleep the night before. ~ Rick Anderson