textura

ALBUMS
Automotive
Benevento/Russo Duo
Benni Hemm Hemm
Caribou
[The] Caseworker
Eric Chenaux
Cineplexx
Claudia
Daedelus
J Dilla
Envy
Fond of Tigers
Formication
Grizzly Bear
Guther
Ike Yard
Kilo Watts
The Knife
Minimum Chips
Miss Violetta Beauregarde
North Valley Sub. Orch.
Quench
Sandoz
Dani Siciliano
Liam Singer
Stop Disco Mafia
Susanna/Magical Orch.
Vorpal
Wisp
Working Nuclear Free City
Peter Wright
Susumu Yokota
Zeebee

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
Belladonna Summer
Cut Copy FabricLive
Mark Farina
Magda
Tandem 4
Tiefschwarz Fabric
Total 7
Until Human Voices...

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Allie
Barem
Deathprod
Ensemble
Extrawelt
Marc Houle
Loco Dice
Lost Trax
David Newlyn
Sandro Perri
Porter & Blain
Relay
Sirka Ragnar
SLG
Swat-Squad

Benevento/Russo Duo: Play Pause Stop
Butter Problems/Reincarnate Music

The White Stripes isn't the only two-piece making noise out there. Benevento/Russo Duo's Play Pause Stop busts chops too with Joe Russo adding raucous drum thunder to Marco Benevento's … keyboards? Yup, and not only that but a storming instrumental rock album too and, in fact, a follow-up to the Brooklyn-based pair's debut Best Reason to Buy the Sun. No sloppy jams for these two either as Play Pause Stop's primary focus is compositional. If the title cut included lyrics, for example, they'd probably be about heartbreak or loss of some kind, judging by the melancholy Rhodes riff and somber choral line that dominates. Though nominally a rock duo, Benevento/Russo Duo's obviously been ingesting its share of electronic music too, as the song's Ovalesque middle section indicates, and hints of jazz and country crop up throughout the journey too.

No one need worry about the sparse instrumentation leading to a sameness of sound either: in addition to the regular piano arsenal, Benevento dusts off a Mellotron and Wurlitzer (and, in truth, though drums and keyboards constitute 95% of the album's sounds, the duo adds an occasional bit of guitar and bass) while Russo's cymbal showers and rambunctious drumming constitute a one-man percussion army (he seems to channel Keith Moon on “Echo Park”). Gorgeous melodies sail through the 7/4 “Soba and” jubilant “Best Reason to Buy the Sun,” and, if “Hate Frame” goes a little too much off the deep end, Play Pause Stop hardly disappoints otherwise. Enough talk: shut the windows, turn it up, and bask in the euphoric glory of “Something for Rockets.”

September 2006