Clikatat Ikatowi

Clikatat Ikatowi is a hard band to pin down. They adhere to the same chaotic aesthetic that many of the bands from their native San Diego (is there a trend here?), bands like their label mates Antioch Arrow and Heroin. They also share the post-punk dynamism of Drive Like Jehu. What they bring to the the table is a messy, tribal, off the rails, jazzy propulsion, led by the amazing drumming skill of Mario Rubalcaba. A sound that was at once furious, tense and spastic, but also trance-like, atonal and hazy, recalling bands like Slint and Rodan in their more progressive moments. They blaze through nine tracks in just under a half an hour, and I guarantee you'll be reaching to hit repeat. If not to try and grasp what you just heard, at least to say "huh? what the?". Clikatat manage to stay true to their hardcore and punk roots and yet forge a new path in the study of tension and movement in music. A definite leap forward in punk history and an album that has continiued to stay my CD rotation since the mid 90's. "DNA timebomb" is a favorite of mine, with its galloping harmonic bridge, stop and start rhythm and its opening lines, "It's all so / rapidly changing / Confusion / is temporary!"

The River of Souls EP was released at the end of their career and shows the band leaning more toward the hazy thrum of their slower tracks, creating strange, simmering, otherworldly melodies. The two records stand as a good showing of one of the more inventive groups from the San Diego post punk scene.