Choice pick: System Noise – ep

Powerful, groundbreaking, even paradigm-shifting first release by NYC’s most indelibly unique, instantly recognizable band. They are unmatched in intensity by any other band in town right now. System Noise are going places nobody’s gone before, blending elements of noise rock, art rock, funk, metal and even hip-hop with a scorching, high-voltage live show. Produced at Lucid Production, arguably the best-sounding new rock and pop studio in New York, this ep adds a richness of textures and subtleties that don’t always make it to the stage. Most of it is ferociously loud rock, yet imbued with the kind of dynamics you typically expect from a jazz group. They’re fearlessly political, but their sense of humor makes them more likely to get their point across than if they thrust it in your face. You can dance to System Noise, but this cd is also a treat to listen to on headphones. It’s the kind of album that stoners, punks and hip-hop kids – people you don’t necessarily expect to find in the same room, let alone getting along with each other – can all agree on.

It’s what happens when you put four type A personalities in a locked room with a bunch of guitars and loud amps. Frontwoman Sarah Mucho honed her spectacular vocal chops singing over crowds of drunks in cabaret bars. Kurt Leege played lead guitar with avant-funksters M’lumbo, noisy indie rockers Noxes Pond, goth-tinged art-rockers Ninth House and mod punk revivalists the Dog Show. Bassist Sanford Arisumi slides and swoops out of the murky depths to the heights of ecstasy with a full-tilt intensity and melodicism unmatched by any other four-string player in rock today. No wanky Jaco Pastorius bullshit, just melody, groove, then more melody and groove. Drummer Pouth pushes the unit with a spectacular precision, sense of humor and uncommon subtlety for someone who hits as hard as he does.

To their credit, they avoid the virtuosity trap where everybody in the band is always soloing at the same time. While a lot of the playing is way over the edge, they’re very terse when they need to be. The ep opens with The Dark Side, a wild, King Crimson-inflected noise rock/funk number with all kinds of unexpected time changes and a surprise ending. Everyday Hustler, with its catchy, recurrent central hook evokes what a great funk band like Defunkt might have done with a Talking Heads song. The album’s centerpiece, Prom Night is a shockingly beautiful, macabre ballad inspired by the film Carrie, and could be the best single song released this year, creeping along on over eerie arpeggios to a murderously explosive chorus. Other standout tunes on the cd include the noisy hip-hop number Shitkickers, which kicks the shit out of Fox News and the rest of the propaganda industry, and Unresolved, with its ominous bass intro exploding into a practically heavy metal crescendo – and it only gets more intense from there.

Everybody I know who is a hardcore music fan eventually reaches the point where they suddenly discover something totally different, unlike anything they ever heard, that completely changes and enriches the way they hear music. For me, that was Second Edition by PiL. For you it might have been Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, Coltrane, Skip James or something considerably more obscure or exotic. I think System Noise will have that same effect on a new generation of listeners who might not know any of those particular artists, who all pushed the envelope just as System Noise are doing now. This album is essential for anyone who thinks they know something about music…or who likes to throw parties where people can dance. It’s available at shows and soon online and at better retailers. System Noise plays the cd release for this ep at the Cutting Room, 24th St. just west of 5th Ave. Tues May 31 at 10 PM. http://www.systemnoisenyc.com