Cougar is probably about as rockist a release as you’re going to find on Cyclic Defrost. The first few tracks of Patriot had me thinking of The Mars Volta, without quite the manic ADHD edge. But the opening ‘Stay Famous’ and ‘Florida Logic’, and certainly ‘Thundersnow’ further in, contain the kind of jerky stop start arhythms, intricate snare rolls and multi-guitar attack to put them in that ballpark. As a result, my initial reaction was rather ‘ho-hum’. But towards the end of ‘Florida Logic’ a glitch-cut guitar chord to signal the entry of the song’s climax demonstrated a twist in the path and things picked up a bit for me from there.
Aaron Sleater’s (I’m presuming) input on laptop and synth is what gives the American five-piece a point of difference and this culminates in ‘Heavy Into Jeff’s (reference lost on me) bitcrushed heaven of lava guitar smudge, grating synth and dubbed out rhythm. It’s the highpoint of the album for me, and serves to show exactly what the mix of Four Tet and Fugazi mentioned on the Ninja Tune website might sound like. ‘Daunte v. Armada’ late on the album brings in the Nick Drake also mentioned in the band’s influences, as well as some pitch shifted percussion used to great effect, almost sounding like a Cuban rhythm section at a Scottish prom. Some other textural changes, such as muted brass and hammered piano strings on ‘This Is An Affidavit’ add extra interest along the way.
There is, ultimately, still the uncertain shadow of prog-rock hanging over Patriot. Many may see this as a great selling point and will love this. For me, it gives a little too much license for meandering noodling, particularly in later, mellower tracks on the album, or for triple-guitar indulgence. Inspite of the electronic trimmings this is, at heart, a fairly traditional guitar band album. But there’s certainly enough of interest here, even for someone like me, to suggest that Cougar are worth watching to see where post-rock might be headed.
Adrian Elmer
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