Oxes
Oxes

Math rock
Two words that, when put together, create in our minds impressive regurgitations. Two extremes.
Math rock can be summed up in two words: organized chaos.
Or rather, just to get an idea of what's behind math rock.
Take for example Christopher Columbus; by venturing across the immense, mysterious, and deep ocean, he eventually reached America, for those who didn't know. A place that no one knew and no one could even imagine.
But the point is this: behind what might seem like an insane stroke of luck, a journey for madmen, there was organization. Imagine Columbus bent over his old walnut board, checking his maps, studying, measuring, making proportions, calculating and breaking his brain.
This is math rock, organized madness.
Someone behind that sonic shambles thought about how to make it even more intricate.
But now let's talk about the Oxes, a trio from Baltimore who, with this full-length (who knows what that means... No! I don't want to know) from 2000, deliver a beautiful instrumental album.
Our own Nettarino Fowler, Marco Mirror, and Han Sum, armed with their wireless guitars (take that, analog instruments) and drums, dispense sense of humor and energy by the bucketful.
Which, I think, is what matters most—the energy, which here manifests itself as a degenerate offspring of the couple Don Caballero and Sonic Youth—the former for the rhythm, the latter for certain workshop sounds.
My favorite track is number two "I'm from Hell, Open a Windle"; it is beautiful and very industrial; you've seen the film "Modern Times," the famous scene where Charlie runs back and forth on the assembly line. This song, I think, is something similar, only at double speed and with Charlie on ecstasy.
That's how I see it.
Or another masterpiece, number six "And Giraffe, Natural Enemies" that, just from the title, suggests something. The drums pound and the guitars writhe stridently between slowdowns and accelerations, as if depicting the pursuit of a giraffe in the savanna.
There are only 7 tracks but unfolded and hypnotic to the point that you won't feel the need for anything else.
Since we're talking about a seasoned group you can rely on, the skills are there and it's felt, although some people may not like them, as they are pleasantly dissonant.
And if one day, while you perform your shift in the factory, you snap and decide to kill the manager;
And if one day you embark on an 18-hour marathon of sheer sex with your girlfriend;
And if one day, driven by rage, you shrink-wrap all your festivalbar records and decide to burn them;
And if one day you enter a nightclub with a chainsaw just to see the expressions on the people's faces;
Don't forget this is your soundtrack.