Search - Rick Rizzo, Tara Key :: Dark Edson Tiger

Dark Edson Tiger boasts an indie-rock supergroup of two. With their legendary bands (Eleventh Dream Day and Antietam, respectively), Rick Rizzo and Tara Key wielded the fiercest Les Paul's in all of indie rock. Rizzo seems able to convert outer-space noise into storms of feedback; Key wrings out random staccato bursts of guitar fury. Noth are capable of sublime moments of absolute restrained beauty. The mostly instrumental songs on Dark Edson Tiger feature not only the best of the collaborator's signature styles (especially on the ragged guitar squall of "Low Post Movement in D"), it finds them entering into a revealing musical conversation as each artist pushes, prods, asks questions, and finds difficult answers. With an expanded palette--including cello, viola, piano, and percussion--and the help of a few friends--including Rick Brown and Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley--Rizzo and Key rant, feint, and connect on a stunning suite of songs. On "Chasing Tails" four distinct guitar voices fight for clarity; on "Good Evening Mr. Peckinpah" a cello extracts a tender melody from a wash of muted noise; and on "Duo," strummed chords, a plucked arpeggio, a melodic distorted line, an off-kilter thread of feedback, and a whispered voice all build toward a crescendo then fade away. Dark Edson Tiger is wholly original and revelatory, a kind of chamber music for aging punk rockers. --Tod Nelson