Chatte Royal – Mick Torres Plays Too F***ing Loud
Release Date: 8th March 2024
Label: Kapital Platte
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Math, Progressive Rock, Math Rock.
FFO: Adebisi Shank, And So I Watch You From Afar, Battles.
Review By: Andy Spoon
There’s nothing like an album that absolutely doesn’t try to take itself too-seriously and ends up being excellent in its own way. Chatte Royal’s Mick Torres Plays Too F***ing Loud (MTPTFL) by “post math” artists Chatte Royal is primed to become an album that stands alongside instrumental giants like Adebisi Shank or Battles. It’s a fun romp that has a light presence and airy, head-banging-inducing melodic structure that doesn’t get too “mathy” to such a degree that the grooves get washed-out in the proverbial talent-show of nerdcore. MTPTFL is set to be released on March 8th on Kapital Platte.
Right off the bat, you can hear that the instrumental math rock influences are present on opening track “bonjour” (See link below), which is delightfully whimsical and fun. You might start to think that this would be like a Battles or Adebesi Shank track, which has the ability to stress some people out. Math rock really isn’t for everyone. I was hoping that it wouldn’t get too intricate and out of “time” (so to speak) as it takes quite a bit more of my frontal cortex to pick through rapid tempo and time signature changes, only hoping for an eventual hook to come through and give me a brief reason to get into a groove. I was pleased that Chatte Royal read my mind and allowed me to have more of what I wanted and less of what music majors would show off to their dates to seem worldly or cool. Remember, no one has ever got laid by playing prog rock to a woman…even on vinyl.
One of the things that I find almost unlistenable on some of the recent math rock albums is the failure to build songs on structure that has elements of popular song structure. Many of the bands I’ve heard tend to play a whole track in one single key, tippy-tapping up and down the neck of the guitar to show off, rather than to make a listenable song. It becomes something like a talent show for guitar rhythmic playing, rather than actual music. I think that while Chatte Royal has lots of intricate arpeggios and patterns, they often keep the musical sense of the track cogent to such a degree that there is a melodic dynamic, even without the “tippy taps” that often lead the entire track.
That being said, Chatte Royal did eventually dabble into the more progressive tone as the album went on. However, I did find some of the music to be absolutely enjoyable, while also impressive. There is that remaining “melodic structure” which I referenced before. However, the album seems to escalate in complexity and intensity as the tracks go on. The track Marty Mc Fly was a beautiful higher-speed balance of intense metal riffs and dramatic post-rock patterns that seem to push the boundaries of either genre, something that I find wildly entertaining. If you can theoretically write a track which no one can really “place” in a genre, you’ve done something right. I highly suggest that you, as a listener, try to place that track somewhere on a metal playlist or a prog playlist. There are themes that certainly come from “heavier music” which tend to lend themselves to the metal genres.
The album caps off with a more-intense track that feels right out of a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game, something that is whimsical, exciting, progressive, and just fun. I think that the overall sense I received from MTPTFL was that there is a group of guys who are trying to have a serious romp while writing but aren’t trying to make a douchey prog album that reeks like mustache oil and Swedish underarm crystals. Without any music continuity or themes, it’s hard to tell what the overall message of the album is, supposing one exists. Instrumental rock music doesn’t often “transport” me to places, and MTPTFL isn’t necessarily an exception. I think that I want to classify this album as a prog version of composer Erik Satie’s life work – meant to be enjoyed passively. I hope that’s not an insult to the band, because I don’t intend it to be.
There isn’t an overall sense of who Chatte Royal is by the presentation of the album, but it’s a fun foray into the band’s sense of direction, as it seems, at least to me, that the album starts out whimsically, and ends more dramatically. I am not sure if that’s what they were intending with the dynamics of the album structure, but I think it’s a cool idea. Overall, I would absolutely put this next to the bands that play in this structured genre.
(3 / 5)
