Employing some theatrics, and a whole bunch of technical proficiency, 31 Knots escapes the math rock pitfall of being too clean and meticulous. They’re not afraid of the distortion pedal, and manage to stay away from most of the Rush-like noodling. They do play around with genres quite a bit, ranging from 70s rock to some almost 80s alt sounds to jazzy Karate-style stuff to angular DC Q and Not U rock. There’s a weird soundscape in the middle of the album that makes me want to stick chopsticks through my eardrums, but otherwise it’s an album filled with off-kilter rock ‘n roll. For some reason the album reminds me of The Police song “Miss Gradenko” meets some of the more atonal Cure stuff.
