Review: The Fire Show

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The Fire Show
“Saint the Fire Show”
(Perishable Records)

The Fire Show takes the aggressive tones of post-punk underground rock and uses it as a grayscale palette for aggressive and unrushed indie art rock of starkly contrasting chiaroscuro. This is the third album from Chicago group. It is a majestic and towering work of ragged beauty the ensemble produced from probably hours of perfection-seeking studio sessions. Nearly one half-dozen guests join the core trio of M. Resplendent (vocals, guitar, sampler and drums), Olias Nil (guitar, piano, percussions and vocals) and, simply holding the bottom end on bass, Pyx Klos. The shifting layers of rhythms and effected guitar presents an obscuring veil that vocals pierce at varying levels of intensity and also carrying its own radio-voice effects. Instead of using this sonic spectrum of textures of melancholy slow-core, The Fire Show presents sophisticated rock that is accessible, for it is not ostentatious enough to be art rock nor simplistic enough to be merely post-grunge impressionism. The enhanced CD includes videos of the group in performance.