Baltimore trio Smoke Bellow manage to jumble up the best elements of a half-dozen different genres with ease. Parts of the group's new one on Trouble in Mind Records, Open for Business, sound like Nineties post-rock, but lots more recalls more expansive experiments in what we called alt-rock back in my day. Fans of bands as disparate as Hugo Largo, Slint, and Throwing Muses should find passages here to love.
While the percussive opener "Fee Fee" takes an adventurous tack, "Hannan" takes a funky one. As in debt to Talking Heads as Vampire Weekend, this selection might even make one think of that Roches record that Fripp played on. Elsewhere, the languid "Anniversary" showcases the vocals of Meredith McHugh, while offering a forum for the instrumental prowess of the performer and her band-mates, Christian J. Best and Emmanuel Nicolaidis. "Maybe Something", a highlight here, marries the spry college rock of early Love Tractor with hints of the first rumblings from Let's Active or even R.E.M. This whole record stirs up those bits that feel familiar with new approaches to how to do this, revealing that Smoke Bellow are comfortable in attempting to redefine melodic methods in the world of 21s century indie.
Open for Business is out now via Trouble in Mind Records.
[Photo: Smoke Bellow Bandcamp]