Search - Muffins :: Double Negative

Bursting Into The Present

Robert Carlberg | Seattle | 10/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"How does a 30-year old prog-rock band remain not only relevant, but vital in their dotage?



By writing kick-ass music which takes all of the intellect of the '70s and marries it to the vigor and contempt of today's music scene. By proving that instrumental music doesn't have to be sappy grocery store backgrounds. By thrusting from their loins a record so bold, so focussed that on first hearing it you spontaneously stand up and shout "Yeah!"



Comparisons could be made but would be essentially meaningless -- The Muffins are completely original while simultaneously having absorbed anything and everything since the Beatles broke up. This music is catholic (in the small 'c' meaning) appealing to fans of jazz, rock, heavy metal, Teutonic doom, avant-garde, big band, Belgian angst, university art-rock.... In fact it's so damn appealing I can't think of anybody it would offend.



"Double Negative" is so good you can't not like it!"

ALL THEIR OWN

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 10/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just to add to Robert's fine review: a number of "comparisons" ran through my head while listening this amazing CD. Absolutely none of them fit.



When I first heard "Bandwidth" I remember writing "new and familiar all at once". Now it's really not even a question of glimmers of this or that flickering in and between -- with "Double Negative" The Muffins arrive at a place completely their own. The scope of what these guys know of and know how to do is truly astonishing. There are moments when you think the music will take you someplace familiar and it simply, consistently, refreshingly refuses to do so. Which makes this CD a very rare accomplishment. I cannot catogerize this music beyond saying it's thoroughly incredible work. Be not afraid, buy a copy for yourself and for everyone you know."