Shellac
Terraform

When I pulled "Terraform" from its casing, I was convinced I had something important in my hands. But it was only partially so. It is a really great album, solid and compact.

After the masterpiece "At Action Park," nobody was expecting originality from Albini. The flash of genius had already happened. But surely, there was an expectation for an album that could stand against the previous one, with at least a new tension. And it's precisely this tension that is missing in "Terraform". Or rather, it's there, but it doesn't hold up throughout the album. Anyway, it is still a great work, far superior to a lot of the crap circulating around. Violence, broken rhythms, almost compressed, the importance of offbeat, the importance of silence. Albini's songs are like roller coasters: they alternate moments of apparent calm with breathtaking moments. True explosions.

The piece that opens the work is "Didn't We Deserve A Look At You The Way You Really Are," and it forcefully occupies half of the first side of the album. Now, this is what was to be expected from Albini. Pieces like this, that turn monotony (three bass notes throughout the song) into masterpieces.

The roughness of the sound, its naturalness, and the quest for the "minimal" are appreciable. Overall, a somewhat subdued work, but still appreciable and preferably to be owned on vinyl (180 grams, of course!).