Caustic
Roberta Bondar
Released by Bruised Tongue
I’ll admit I had only heard of Ottawa band Roberta Bondar before listening to their new tape, Caustic, but after listening, I’m wondering why?
The opening string arrangement on “Children” is immediately shocking. It sounds like a cross between Wagner’s “Ride of The Valkyries” and a horror soundtrack. This eventually slips into a grunge run similar to Sonic Youth, but also parts Nirvana, Riot Grrrl, and several others. The drumming here is great but the mixing is a little confusing.
The entire album has a ‘90s grunge feel to it and Lidija Rozitis’ vocals maintain this aesthetic perfectly.
The vocal emulating even sounds like Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein on “Creature Cave.” The track’s verses, while a little too busy, still give the perfect space for Rozitis’ vocal style, and its chorus hits all the right highs to save the track.
The bassline on “Palm Bay” is gripping, with an eerie tone and ominous melody. Strangely though the track sped up losing this feel and going for what I thought was a fast song, before returning to its opening tempo for a more distorted “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” sound before speeding up again. While the moving tempos were pretty cool, it became a bit of a motion sickness problem where I could enjoy both speeds but they seemed unnatural as one unit.
An unexpected turn was the brighter than usual “STD” whose sound was like a rainy day surf-rock, the most danceable song on the album that ends just too soon.
But wait—the track starts up again for a b-section but strangely enough this other track that was one of the best on the album is still “STD” but a completely different song in every way. Another great track but strange it didn’t get its own separate track listing.
After the slightly overrun intro to “Caustic” it picks up into an exotic song with some trippy vocals and keys, as well as some psychedelic Phrygian guitar lines and tension building strings. When the heavy drums enter this song there’s a heavy intensity that evolves into what sounds like a demo for one of Warpaint’s songs, and that is not a bad thing.
“Wet Eyes,” although the most straightforward track, is weird in all the right places and ends the album on an epic note, if maybe a little overdone.
