Album Details

• Artist: The Usaisamonster
• Album: Space Programs
• Label: Load
• Year of Release: 2008
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: patchen on 2008-11-14

"Cocaine Wedding" kicks off this set in style, its rocking, off-kilter rhythm reminiscent of the band's first couple of records.  What immediately follows, "Ice Bridge," is a more abstract, electronics driven piece. Within the first two songs, The Usaisamonster show that the confident "Space Programs" is a progression and synthesis of the various paths this duo have taken in their sonic exploration.

The band enlists the help from a couple of guest keyboardists, which helps give the sound a more dreamy texture than normal. Still, the bite and the latent war between hope and rage that consistently makes The Usaisamonster so compelling remains the tension propelling songs like "Frozen Rainbows," "Above All It's The Song," and the two songs that use a specific place to invoke inner struggles, "Florida" and "Tulsa."

"Space Programs" is about myths past and future, and about folly present, always present. While not as powerful as other releases, this one again shows The Usaisamonster to be a band that is self-aware and on a mission. Since they haven't found the answers to that mission yet, we don't have them either. But there are clues.

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