*** June of 44

IN THE FISHTANK VOL. 6

(Quarterstick/Konkurrent)

June of 44 made a leap forward with last year's Four Great Points, a charming, melodic masterstroke that nailed a happy medium between singer/guitarist Jeff Mueller's epic storytelling and the band's tightly wound angular rock rhythms. After four full-lengths and one EP in four years (where they usually favored Slint's jarring dynamics), it was the Chicago-based quartet's first truly original statement.

This year's cohesive jazz-rock Anahata (Quarterstick) continued the move away from studio self-indulgence to healthy self-editing, and that helped prepare the band for the unusual opportunity documented on this disc. An invitation by the Dutch label Konkurrent to participate in its Fishtank series gives artists two full days in the studio to hammer out 20 to 30 minutes of music, a process that often yields indulgent recordings. J44 resisted that temptation, however, and they deliver some of their most refined tracks to date. On "Generate," the album's only non-instrumental, Mueller sings with hypnotic repetition, "Clear your mind/Simplify/Lose control," and the band follow suit, abandoning the rhythmic complexity of their early albums for the heady grooves that punctuated Four Great Points. Many of the songs rely on simple refrains, whether it's the languid guitar riff of "Henry's Revenge" or Fred Erskine's funk-fried bass on the tranquil "Degenerate." Combine these lows with the visceral punch of "Modern Hereditary Dance Steps" and "Pregenerate" and Vol. 6 packs a vital show of intuition and restraint that this series often lacks.

-- James Goncalves