HangedUp "Kicker In Tow" - This is the second album from this duo (check out their 1st one which is self-titled). These guys use only viola and percussion (and lots of layering of these instruments). They create these amazing visuals and moods. Some songs are incredibly minimal and others are full and quite intense. All songs are instrumentals. This is a great album. Highly recommended for anyone, but especially those playing rock, art noise, and anything a little different. All songs are good.
My Picks: 2, 4, 6, 9
Katie P. 12/16/02

1) Uptempo viola sawing and a nice solid drum beat. Quite repetitive, but it keeps building on itself. Then drops into viola hits on the up beat along with some nice hi-hat. Goes back to first part of song and gets intense and faster.
2) Quiet for a few seconds then some low viola strokes along with random scraping and hitting noises. Wow. This is beautiful. Viola keeps on with its melody and the drums keep getting noisier.
3) Quiet for a few seconds at beginning and slowly fades in with a drone. Percussion comes in picking up the energy as more violas are layered. Almost falls into a march with the snares. Slowly fades out in drones.
4) Percussion hits and scraping noises. Then it sounds like a clock ticking is added and a song comes in. Wow! This is so cool. Cool sounding chime-like instruments. Solid uptempo beat. Ends pretty abruptly.
5) Clangs that have sustained rings. Also has some feedback and high-pitched harmonics. Very minimal.
6) Quiet at first. Fades in slowly with high-pitched drones and viola string scraping noises. Some other metallic sounding scraping noises are added. Drums start pounding and viola comes in with a melody of sorts. This is a cool song with several changes. Nice melodies and very nice percussion.
7) Starts with bells or gongs clanging and ringing. Pretty minimal. Continues into next track.
8) Bells (or maybe a triangle) start it off. Strings are added and it picks up pace into a song. Nice solid midtempo beat mostly filled with percussion. Ends abruptly.
9) Fades in with viola. Kind of a throbbing feeling, or circular (like the track name suggests). Eventually settles into a sweet melody with the whole throbbing circular sound never leaving.