THE ELECTRIC FOREST

The third and last album from this instrumental, Illinois-based quartet. Released almost six years after their last album, it sounds like it was recorded at the same time. There seems to be more found sound vocal samples than on the last album but not as much as the debut. The Electric Forest has the best album cover of the three but ultimately it's the weakest album overall. "Obumbrata Et Velata" has some Tortoise-style drumming which gets more chaotic as the piece moves along. "Green Stamp" is probably the best track here. Very upbeat as it grooves along. Nice organ in this song. "Three Hole Punch" is probably the most fast-paced track dominated by distorted bass.

"Ridin' A Wire Fence" has some programmed synths playing vaguely Chinese-style melodies. Nice effects-laden guitar in the middle. "Portwine Road" grooves along with a bassline on synth. The track is dominated by synths but later some guitar shows up. "First Person Shopper" features a post-punk style bassline with some 8-bit sounding synths. "Van Of Angels" has some very jazzy drumming with spacey synths. "eYES" is a moody, drumless piece which may appeal to some Brian Eno and Vangelis fans.

Not as good as the first two but being released in 2005 the music here sounds both behind the times and strangely current. Salaryman created some great electronic-oriented and rhythm heavy post-rock but I guess they could only do so much with the formula they used. One more album may have sounded inferior to this but it still would have been more original and unique sounding compared to the majority of what passed for "post-rock" in the 2000s. All their albums are available for download via their homepage (salaryman.org). I'll give this one a 3.5 but round it down to 3 stars.