Review of Almost Never from Forced Exposureby Jimmy Johnson

...in the words of Andrei Codrescu: "sometimes when they shut off the faucets, I think of Chinese mailmen." This is another disturbingly brilliant block of mind-mulching sound from the Mnemonists-dissolved crew. As with their previous CD release, Tumble, there is a further progression here towards the territory of common knowledge. Whereas in the past a total immersion in listener confusion seemed to be part of the creational motive, Almost Never, in a dramatic reversal of form, even goes so far as to list individual instrumentation for each track. So you can listen to the opening segment of "Burn Daylight" and know that it was performed via the use of "flugelhorns, bass clarinets, Rhodes piano, bass drums, crickets and a motorbike on the Lampang-Denchai Road, Thailand." This scandalous clarification might seem ungodly to some, I can even remember Byron going through quite a crisis of faith when this thing arrived right around the same time as Borbetomagus' equally linear-grasping Asbestos Shakedown CD came out. Irregardless, lengthy tunnel-absorbed listening bouts with this one will reveal no flaw in character. Spatial acoustics are wracked with (sometimes in an almost-rock fashion), and zones of previously unconscionable thought will flow through your synaptical cracks like so much turbodense demon seed; experimental sound ought to blow off your fucking roof, and that this is one more mission accomplished piece from Biota to taste of zodiac should not come as any major shock.

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