Normal Love
Normal Love 2007

Released through independent High Two Records label in 2007, this is a debut album by the US instrumental Avant-RIO-Prog quintet NORMAL LOVE from Philadelphia. It features 6 complex tracks clocking in at over 32 minutes. The music is full of intricate and disharmonious passages, meandering structural turns and shifts, paternal tugs and splits, dissonant and atonal chords, angular and torturing sounds created by two guitarists, bassist, drummer, and violinist who adds a healthy dose of friskiness to the show. For an unaccustomed listener, it could be rather painful and even unbearable experience since the band sound like if all instruments playing unrelated, chaotic, or contradicting parts. Yes, the music is not flowing gently and sweetly here, and it requires great patience and attention from a listener to catch and follow themes in each track. It’s nothing short of a sophisticated and artfully explorative puzzle, masterfully conceived and implemented with a good deal of variety. And probably the most important argument in favor of this album is that, unlike many other instrumental avant-rock bands, these guys have a certain vision of what they want to do. In other words, it’s a precise, pointed, focused and emotional nonconformist instrumental music which connoisseurs of avant-garde jazz and rock will appreciate for sure finding certain perfection in NORMAL LOVE debut record. In the same camp with Ahleuchatistas, Cheval De Frise, Flying Luttenbachers, Ruins, Upsilon Acrux, Zs but with a bulk of their own originality. Highly recommended!

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