I mentioned Mahjongg's new album Kontpab over the holidays as an early-year highlight. Here's the full review, which is up today at Dusted.
"Mahjongg, the Chicago-based, Missouri-born post-afro-funk- soul-dance-electronic collective, does not trust much in words. The bio that accompanies this second full-length is mostly about the shortcomings of written communication, reviews and interviews. The liner notes for Kontpab are almost comically terse, the band’s name, track titles, a website and four lines of credits. Even when Mahjongg’s songs feature words, they tend to be buried under several layers of syncopated rhythms, just another sound to be experienced in a complicated mix.
"And yet, this band is hardly reluctant to communicate. From the very first moments of 'Pontiac,' you can hear them listening intensely to each other and reacting in split second time. It’s not verbal, but speech all the same, a discourse carried out with clattery drums, keyboards, rattles, sticks, guitars and occasional wordless melody. When the cut switches, right at the end, from a slippery, convoluted 4/4 to a time signature denominated in threes, it’s an effortless morph, as if a song could simultaneously exist in two rhythmic dimensions. It’d be tricky if you weren’t paying attention, but the people in Mahjongg are always listening."
There's another cut embedded in the review. Follow this link for more: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/4029
And here's the MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/machinegong
