Touchdown/Orthrelm - Touchdown - Blynken

CD pairing two instrumental duos doing some astounding things, despite their seemingly limiting instrumentation. Orthrelm (Mick Barr on distorted, treble-heavy guitar and Josh Blair on drums) checks in first with four untitled tracks totaling about 13 minutes. Nearly overwhelming in their detail and information density, these songs are firmly within Orthrelm s by-now distinctive personal idiom, sounding like a cross between high energy '60s free jazz (due to the drumming) and modern extreme metal (based on the angular guitar-shredding). The music, though it contains no repetition and may even sound improvised to some listeners, is in fact fully composed, and close listening reveals a strong attention to form and to the development of certain motives or melodic ideas.