Maserati - 'Inventions for the New Season'

It's no secret that Maserati is one of my favorite bands, so please forgive my endless endearment.   I can't help it.  For those of you that don't know, Maserati is a (currently) 5-piece instrumental post-rock band from Athens, Georgia.  The reason I say currently 5-piece is that their former drummer, an amazing musician by the name of Gerhardt "Jerry" Fuchs, fell down an elevator shaft to his death this past fall.  If it truly is better to burn out than to fade away, the great Mr. Fuchs made one hell of a performance on Maserati's last proper album in 2007, 'Inventions for the New Season' their 3rd proper album.  Although only having 3 legitimate LPs the band has a pretty prolific discography when considering the vast amount of singles, splits, and most recently an excellent rarities collection 'Passages' released last year just before Fuchs' death.

'Inventions for the New Season is literally dripping with more beautiful delay pedal-work than The Edge can hide under his skull cap.  Guitarists Matt Cherry and Josh McCauley create an electronic synth-like rythym, seamlessly intertwining their melodic riffs over Fuchs expert drumming.  The music has frequently been called "danceable", which I cannot dispute because I often find myself at least marginally bobbing when listening to fast paced tracks like 'Synchronicity IV' or 'Show Me The Season'.  The opener, 'Inventions' bubbles and builds over the course of it's 9 minute plus track length to cresting tsunami-heights, before crashing down, receding, and crashing down again. And again. And Again.  It reminds me of STS9 at their most frenetically paced, yet darker and with less electronic flourishes.  Also, if you know who the Coma Lilies are, this band is the love child that they never knew they had.

I love this album to no end, and while it does seem to lose a little of the heavy steam by the time the final notes echo to black, there is really nothing to complain about because the album is perfect in all other respects.  This band and album is, well, to put it in the words of the band themselves, "Maserati is as sleek and sexy as the legendary Italian sports it takes its name from".  Enough said.